Whatever it takes
by Evilkat23
Summary: Something dangerous is lurking in Kansas. Something that's coming right for Kyoto and Sicily's town. All signs point to a dragon and if that's the case then they're going to need all the help they can get before it's too late. (Sequel to Twin Skeletons. Rated for slight language)
1. Chapter 1

"Boo!" Ludwig busted into a fit of laughter as the woman screamed and hurried away from him. Wrapping his red arms around his abdomen Ludwig gave a howling laugh at the woman before rushing towards his next victim. The grand pastor himself.

Ludwig liked this small town the nice twins set him up with. Sometimes he likes to hide for months on end, let the people think he's vanished then he'll scare them all at church. The look on their faces is normally priceless as they try to get away from him. Yes, Ludwig was quite happy here. On more than one occasion Charles will find him and try to shoot him but silly human toys don't harm Ludwig one bit. It just makes Ludwig frustrated more than anything, so Ludwig gets back at Charles by destroying the beams inside the house. Oh, the look on Charles's face when part of the ceiling fell on him was perfect. Yes, Ludwig likes it here and for whatever the people refuse to leave.

Twisting his bones so he could fit into a tiny crack in the wall, Ludwig chuckled to himself. The silly pastor constantly tried to keep Ludwig out of the church by sealing all the holes and even sealing underneath the church, but Ludwig could fit anywhere and everywhere. Humans were so silly. This was going to be the best one today. The pastor hasn't been pranked in months and today he was in for a fun surprise. Ludwig made it to the other side of the wall and jumped towards the chair. The chair rolled at Ludwig's sudden weight on it. It almost caused the imp to fall off, but he corrected himself in no time. Where to hide? Where to hide? The closet was too predictable. Running his black claws over the fabric of the chair idly Ludwig huffed and puffed his cheeks out. It was times like this he wished he had his siblings with him together they'd all hide in various places and think of the best ways to scare the Pastor, but no poor little Ludwig was all by himself.

Hearing footsteps coming towards him, Ludwig decided to hide above the door. Flapping his wings Ludwig balanced himself on the doorframe and waited. Sure enough, moments later the door opened and in came the fat pastor himself. Unaware of the imp just above him the pastor kept on walking. Ludwig saw the perfect moment and leaped like a cat landing on the pastor's shoulders. "Hello!" Ludwig wildly cheered as the pastor screamed trying to get the imp off of him.

"Get off of me, devil!" The pastor demanded before actually grabbing one of Ludwig's wings and pulling on it hard. Ludwig hissed and suddenly bit the Pastor's meaty hand.

"Nobody touches my wings!" Ludwig shrieked then jumped off of the pastor on to the chair, tipping the chair over, and then jumping to the desk. The pastor made a grab for Ludwig on the desk, but the most that did was cause Ludwig to run and knock everything off of the desk. Larry gave a cry of frustration and tried to chuck the lamp at Ludwig and all that did was just break the lamp as Ludwig jumped into the closet.

"Gotcha!" Larry yelled as he opened the door, but Ludwig was now in the walls.

Ludwig gave a hearty laugh before leaping out of the crack in the wall before twisting his bones back in place. Ludwig's laugh died in his throat very quickly. The sky was a lot darker than before and not naturally so. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, yet it was oddly black. He could see the sun trying to give off light but something was blocking it. Ludwig noticed that humans were also noticing this, but they looked more like mannequins frozen in place than humans. Not one human acknowledged him. Ludwig whipped his tail side to side as he looked up at the sky again it was getting darker and darker with each minute, Ludwig couldn't even see the sun anymore. It was getting harder to see the humans around him. Suddenly a breeze went sweeping past all of them. That was when Ludwig knew one thing, fly, fly away. Unfolding his wings Ludwig gave one thrust upwards and was in the sky, he thought he was anyway. Looking down at the village he could hear something, something that wasn't natural. At first, he thought it might have been humans moving something heavy across the ground, but then he realized it was something heavy but the humans weren't moving it; it was moving.

"Surrender yourselves to me…" A mysterious voice spoke through the darkness of surrounded everything. Ludwig tried to look for whoever blacked out the sky but he couldn't see a thing now. "You thought you could be rid of me forever, but that is not the case. Not any longer. Now… it is I that will be rid of you!"

A light lit up the darkness. Ludwig had to make himself fly higher in the air as orange flames suddenly erupted out of nowhere destroying the buildings and, to Ludwig's utmost horror, burned the humans where they stood. Some of them seem to snap out of their stupor and tried to run but it was no use the flames were faster. Ludwig looked at the creature responsible as the fire was still spewing out of its horrifying maw. There was no mistaking it, it was a dragon. It seemed to take up four whole blocks by itself. It's wings in tatters making Ludwig wonder if the thing could even fly. It's head in a shape similar to that of the small dragon with the twins, only this one had horns that went to the side of it's head and curved outward. The dragon itself seemed to be black blending in with the darkness that surrounded the entire town. Ludwig could faintly see spikes protruding from the dragon's shoulder and down its spine. At the end of its tail were three spikes. "Parish before me foolish humans!" The creature roared loudly before lifting its head to the sky and letting off an orange fireball in the sky. Ludwig's instincts took over before anything else. He flew away from the town as quick as he possibly could.

It would seem that it wasn't a moment too soon as before he knew it he was back in the light. It scared and blinded him it also forced him to stop. However, Ludwig couldn't get his eyesight back fast enough as there was a sudden explosion beside him where the darkness resumed. Whatever it was sent Ludwig into a tree knocking him out instantly.

* * *

Kyoto Genesis gave a loud grunt as she proceeded to haul a large hay bale up and onto the bed of the truck in front of her. Satisfied, Kyoto dusted any stray pieces of hay off of her overalls before looking up at the bright beautiful blue Kansas sky. Ever since she and her sister were adopted by their aunt their life felt so much better, they both felt free. No longer under the strict rules of the 'grand' Pastor Larry and their father. They're actually allowed to do stuff! Stuff they could only dream of as children! For starters they can now, at the age of fifteen, work for money! And that's just what they are doing now.

Alice Mcathy, their close friend, was currently working with their Aunt Yui for her assistant job meaning that the Mcathy Ranch became short-handed for winter. So the twins, who had experience with this kind of labor, kindly offered to help out, and they were getting _paid_ actual money to help feed and take care of the animals. It was almost insane for the two of them. Still, the money was nice, so when summer came they both had something to spend when they took off with Junior.

'_Junior…'_ Kyoto thought rather sadly. She missed him if he was literally a child the size of a semi. Junior was excitable and bouncy something that threw both Sicily and Kyoto for a loop when they first met him. Junior, more or less, saved them last year when Kyoto accidentally drove their father's truck into a tree off the road. The two weren't in danger, but Junior saw the crash and decided to help them anyway. Still, if it weren't for that then the two of them wouldn't have had the adventure that saved them from marrying Pastor Larry.

"Hey, Kyo! I brought out some drinks!" Kyoto turned her head to see Alice's older brother, Amadeus, coming towards her with a coke can. Once he was close enough, Amadeus tossed the cold can to her, Kyo caught it with ease. She kept the can at arm's length before opening it. As expected it foamed over just a little bit, but that didn't stop her from still drinking the carbonated drink.

Amadeus is a strong handsome man, rugged with impressive muscles, he could probably pick up both of the twins with only one hand. His hair is shaggy and blond, his eyes a light baby blue color that could melt anybody's heart.

"How's my-" Kyoto paused to hiccup "-my sister holding up?"

"She's doing fine with old Bestie." Amadeus smiled at Kyo. Bestie being the oldest cow on the ranch being twenty-eight years old. "Oh, before I forget. Before you two leave today, my parents want new rat-traps put around the chicken coop. Apparently, those little rodents have been getting into the feed again. We have some new sticky and snap traps we need you guys to set up."

"Oh… is there any way we could use live traps?" Kyoto asked him a little weirdly as she took another sip of her drink. Her mind went to Lola, Lola was lucky that the twins had originally found her in a live trap for rats and mice, and not in a snap trap. Lola was their friend and the idea of them accidentally killing one of Lola's many relatives kinda made Kyoto queasy.

"Uh… no. We don't need any of these vermin coming back to eat our chicken feed. Look, if you're queasy about dead animals just know you don't have to dispose of them. Okay?" Amadeus put it plainly with a shrug.

"Y-Yeah…" Kyoto hummed softly as she cast her eyes down to her soda.

"Anyway, I have to get back to work. There's a frost coming tonight and I have to cover the plants up. You got the rest of the hay bales?"

Kyoto looked over to where the Hay bales sat and nodded. "There's only three, I got it."

"Good." With that simple word Amadeus turned and left her back to her work. Kyoto placed her soda down on the ground before grabbing the next hay bale and going to hoist it back up on the bed of the truck.

* * *

Sicily cooed softly as she gently rubbed behind Bestie's ear. The old cow seemed to like that the best; she really liked Bestie. Bestie seemed to return the love as she gently rubbed her head against Sicily's chest as a sign of affection. "Oh, if only you could talk, big girl!" Sicily sighed softly. "If rats can talk, then why can't cows?"

"Rats talking?" Sicily nearly jumped out of her cowgirl boots at Amadeus's voice. "If rats can talk then I can safely say I've seen it all!" Amadeus jumped up on the stable railing so he could lean on it comfortably. He gave Sicily a smile that just melted her heart. "So, where are these talking rats?" He asked her the smile never leaving his face.

"I saw a video on _Youtube_! The rat was really squeaking but it sounded like talking," Sicily lied on the spot. She then turned and grabbed some hay for Bestie making sure to put it in the cow's feed barrel.

"Well good, if I saw an actual talking rat… I'm sure I'd punt kick the little sucker across the field." Amadeus chuckled softly at his own joke. Sicily frowned deeply at the thought of poor Lola being kicked across a field by Amadeus. '_Let's face it, he's so strong he'll destroy her with one kick.'_ She shuddered at that thought.

"Oh, C'mon! What's with you and Kyo protecting the rats? They're pests! Vermin!"

"They're still animals, Amadeus," Sicily spoke before throwing her arms around Bestie's neck and giving Amadeus the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster. "What if I said I was going to kill poor Bestie just because she got into the dog food?" She whined to him making sure to pout at the end of her statement.

Amadeus only chuckled once again at her before shaking his head. "There's a difference here, Bestie has given birth to no more than ten calves since she's been on this ranch. Two of them are in the stables over there, therefore she is useful and valuable as an animal. A rat just eats our food. Not so valuable."

This time only Sicily chuckled before giving a shrug of defeat to Amadeus. Finally, Sicily left the stable, and Amadeus jumped down from the railing. "So, listen… are you doing anything this Sunday?" Amadeus asked her softly.

"Let me check my calendar-" She paused for a second before looking at him. "-I'm free. Why?" She asked him. She shoved her hands into her pants pockets and leaned in a little closer to him.

"Well-"

There was a loud and sudden crash somewhere in the back of the barn causing both of them to jump. "Ah, hell!" Amadeus cursed out loud before marching towards the back of the barn, past the four other sables and over to where the ropes, muzzles, and saddles lay. For a moment Sicily almost followed him but stopped when she saw something bright red go rushing towards Bestie's stall. '_A fox?!... I don't remember them being that red…'_ While Amadeus continued to inspect. Sicily fell back before turning around; she then peeked inside Bestie's stable. Bestie was unfazed as she was just eating her food as normal, but in the corner of her stable, curled up in a ball, was a small humanoid creature.

"Ludwig?" Sicily whispered once she recognized who it was.

"I don't know what caused it…" Amadeus scratched the back of his head.

"A fox! A fox! I just saw it!" Sicily quickly made up. Amadeus's eyes widened at that. "It went out the stable!"

"Crap! We can't lose another chicken! I'll be back!" With that Amadeus took off running towards the house. Sicily didn't know why- maybe to get a gun- or maybe to get to his father. Either way, she didn't care as she jumped into Bestie's stall. Carefully she walked over to Ludwig, the poor imp looked scared as he just continued to shake violently in the corner of the stall.

"Ludwig, what are you doing here?" She questioned softly. Ludwig didn't respond he just continued to shake and shiver. Sicily didn't know what to do as she watched Ludwig behave so uncharastically. Then she heard Kyoto's voice call out to her.

"Sicily? What's going on-"

"Kyo! Get over here!" She waved her arm in the air to show Kyoto where she was.

"Is that Ludwig!?" Kyoto jumped the rails instantly and hurried over to the two of them. The two twins got down on their knees so as not to startle the little imp. Sicily could feel the hay dig into her exposed knees uncomfortably but she put her own minor discomfort to the side as she reached out to touch Ludwig's wings.

"Don't touch Ludwig!" Ludwig hissed loudly as he suddenly got on his haunches and hissed at Sicily. "Ludwig has seen things!"

"Is that why you came to us?" Kyo asked him softly as her eyes darted over to Sicily. Sicily only shrugged at Kyo in response. Ludwig gave a sudden shudder in response as he kept his eyes down cast at the ground.

"Ludwig didn't 'Come to you' Ludwig just flew. He stopped here to rest… Ludwig had no idea you were here." Ludwig rubbed his forearms uneasily as his lips tightened as an uncomfortable memory seemed to come to him.

"Ludwig what-"

Here a loud _click _behind the two of them they both snapped their heads up as Amadeus now had his dad's shotgun in his hands and aimed it right at Ludwig. "Girls! Move!" He ordered with gritted teeth. "I don't know what the hell that thing is! But it's not welcome here!"

Both Kyo and Sicily stood and in perfect sync they stood in front of Ludwig, protecting him from Amadeus. "Don't shoot him! He's our friend, Amadeus!" Sicily was the first to speak up loudly against Amadeus. Amadeus raised his eyebrows at her but didn't drop his father's gun. Instead, he kept it pointed in Ludwig's direction. "Put the gun down! Please! We'll explain everything…" Sicily bravely put her hand on the gun's barrel and forced it down towards the ground. "Please… Amadeus… just listen to us on this…"

Amadeus's eyes darted from Kyo to Sicily before settling on Ludwig who was still shaking the corner. "You have five minutes to explain what the hell that is!" Amadeus threatened as he shook his fist at Ludwig threateningly.

"We will, I promise… but, uh, before we explain there's something you need to know. Alice already knows all of this…" Kyo explained quickly. Amadeus moved the shotgun up so the barrel was now resting on his shoulder and his hand was off of the trigger.

"Why does that not surprise me? Alright, tell me what you told my sister."

* * *

After an explanation that took more than the five-minute limit that Amadeus had given them. Amadeus was left stroking his peach fuzz. "So, let me get this straight… that thing is an imp, you found him while riding on the back of a _baby_ dragon, and you befriended a talking rat on top of it all?" Amadeus questioned loudly.

"I know it sounds absurd-" Sicily tried to reason but Amadeus only gave a hearty laugh in response.

"Oh, little lady, we passed absurd at talking baby dragon!"

"_Junior_ isn't a baby… he's six." Kyo shrugged.

"Fine. Talking _toddler _dragon." Amadeus shrugged. He then used his father's shotgun to point (not aim) at Ludwig. "So, what's Satan's little helper doing here then?" Ludwig snarled at Amadeus in response before hopping on Kyo's shoulder like a parrot. Kyo almost lost her balance at that, this imp was heavy!

"No clue…" Kyo groaned as she made sure to give a glare to Ludwig in response. "Ludwig, you never did tell us what you saw. Why were you running away?"

"_Kyo!_ You lived there, haven't you? I mean _we_ ran away. Is it so hard to believe that an Imp wouldn't do the same after a while?" Sicily asked her sister as she placed both of her hands on her hips in a mocking fashion. Kyo laughed in response to her sister before giving her head a good shake. Amadeus suddenly leaned down so he was face to face with Ludwig.

"You gonna say somethin', Imp?" Amadeus demanded with an obvious growl in his voice. Ludwig bared his teeth at Amadeus in response.

"Ludwig saw a giant monster!" Ludwig snapped at Amadeus before focusing on the twins. "_Giant monster!_ It caused the sky to go black! It destroyed the village!"

"_What?!" _Both twins gasped out at the news.

"Oh, yes! I watched the fire leave its large jaws! It incinerated everything in its path!"

Even Amadeus seemed stuck for words as he just stood there looking back and forth at the two twins. Both Kyo and Sicily reached for each other's hands more or less out of comfort than anything. "F-Fire? That thing is a dragon?"

"Yes! A dragon of the darkest hue! He blocked the light and attacked! He spoke in a deep voice that seemed to shake the walls!"

"Okay, wait wait! Girls! You told me that this..._thing_ plays pranks on people. How do you two know that this isn't just a lie?" Amadeus spoke simply as the voice of reason. Both twins opened their mouth to defend Ludwig in some way, but they both quickly shut their mouths upon realizing that Amadeus had a point. So, they both just resorted to looking at Ludwig accusingly.

"Ludwig is not lying! Ludwig swears on his seven siblings! Ludwig would not lie about this! Even us imps have standards!" Ludwig snapped back at Amadeus accusingly. "Ludwig can prove he isn't lying! Go to the village!"

"Ludwig, we can't go back there! Not after-" Sicily tried to reason, but Kyo cut her off just as quickly.

"-Wait… he has a point. We should go back. See for ourselves."

"But what if this is a lie?" Amadeus was the first to ask.

"Ludwig just _said_ he wouldn't lie about this!" Ludwig huffed in annoyance at Amadeus he then crossed his arms like an upset child before pouting like one as well.

"What if the monster is still here?" Sicily brought to everyone's attention very quickly. "I really don't want to mess with whatever Ludwig just described!"

"Ludwig believes the monster to be gone. Ludwig was knocked out, you see! When he awoke the darkness was gone!"

There was a moment of heavy silence between everyone as they all seemed to weigh this on their minds. Amadeus rested the shotgun barrel on his shoulder once again before pursing his lips to the side in thought. "Okay. Let's do it." Amadeus finally shrugged. "I'll drive."

"Amadeus! It's dangerous. What if the monster isn't gone?" Sicily asked him. Amadeus only smirked in response to Sicily.

"Why do you think I said I'll drive? Ain't nobody ever outdrove me!" His southern drawl coming in all of a sudden. He then picked up the shotgun off of the ground. "Besides, those buncha bible thumpers live insanely close to us. Our town might be next on this monster's hit list and _if_ that thing isn't lying we need to see the damage that this big beast does." Amadeus held the shotgun tightly in his grip. "But there is one question on my mind… who do we tell? We can't just go to the cops, can we?"

"No. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it… Ludwig," Kyo looked at Imp who was still resting on her shoulder like a deranged parrot. "You don't have to come if you don't want too, sweetie."

"... No… Ludwig wants to come. Ludwig needs to see the damage this beast has caused for himself."


	2. Chapter 2

Sicily sat in the front seat of Amadeus's truck while Amadeus drove down the barren Kansas land at such a fast speed that Sicily's hair was constantly in her face. Kyo was in the backseat getting the worst from the windy cold hair, and Ludwig was flying right behind them surprisingly making good speed... It was super cold icebox of a truck with the windows down and the cold winter air hitting their faces at high speed. "Can't you roll the windows up?" Kyo finally cracked from the back seat.

"I could if I had windows!" Amadeus answered back to Kyo with a loud laugh as he suddenly hit the gas to pick up the speed, it almost gave Sicily a whiplash with how hard the back of her head hit the seat.

"You don't have windows?!" Kyo shouted back over the harsh sound of Amadeus's engine roaring.

"Nah! Some punks broke all of my windows a couple of weeks ago! I've been saving up to get new ones!"

Sicily shivered harshly at the cold weather, her jacket just wasn't enough, not with the winds constantly hitting her. She tucked her arms into her jacket to keep them warm with her own body heat. "_Ah! _Jesus, Ludwig!" Hearing Kyo's scream, Sicily spun around in her seat to see Ludwig now in the back huddled up close to Kyo, who didn't look so pleased about it.

"L-Ludwig c-cold!" Ludwig whined loudly as he seemed to try to use Kyo as a heater.

"Well, don't go touching me with your cold hands! Get off of me!" Sicily couldn't help but giggle at the two as Ludwig was trying his best to imitate a cat in an attempt to lay across Kyo's shoulders. Kyo, on the other hand, was trying to push the imp off of her.

"Holy…" Amadeus suddenly breathed out, his tone sounded concerned which made Sicily turn around to see what he was looking at. Her heart sank all the way to her stomach when she saw it. There was absolutely nothing of their old town. Nothing. All that was left was charred, smoldering, smoking blackness. Amadeus stopped the truck before putting it in park to get out and see for himself. Sicily got out as well. Her mouth was agape as all she could do was just stare. Sicily brought her arms back into their sleeves as she walked a little closer to the blackened earth. She no longer felt cold as she could feel the heat radiating from the ashes.

Kyo and Ludwig were right next to her in a matter of seconds as they looked at the destroyed remains. "Ludwig… did not know it was this bad…" Ludwig admitted in a hushed voice from Kyo's shoulder.

"Everything is gone…" Kyo gasped out; her hands flew to her mouth as she shook her head. "_Everything!"_ She suddenly cried.

"Yeah, I can believe a dragon done this now…" Amadeus spoke in. Sicily could see his eyes darting around trying to take in everything he was seeing. He then rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand and ran his fingers through his hair uneasily. "So… what do we do now? Call the cops?"

"What are we going to tell them, Amadeus?-" Kyo paused and put her thumb and pinky to her ear, mimicking a phone call. "-Yes? 911? Hi, listen, this entire town of people got completely blown off the map, we don't know how it happened but we suspect dragons."

"Cool the sarcasm, smartass. We need to do _something!_ This town, as messed up as it was, still had people in it. People that are now all dead!... people that you two knew." Amadeus yelled out to Kyo.

Sicily nervously rubbed her mouth before shaking her head. "He's right, you know, the cops need to know!-"

"-If we involve the cops it's only going to put more lives in danger!" Kyo fought back.

"-That thing could be coming for our town next!"

"-If it is a dragon, what are the cops going to do? Shoot it? I don't think guns will work in this situation!" There was a moment of silence between everyone after that statement. Sicily looked over at the charred area before shaking her head slowly from side to side.

"Kyo… I think we might have to get Benjamin on the phone." Sicily finally spoke. Amadeus turned his head to face the two twins.

"Who's Benjamin?" Amadeus asked. Kyo was the one to answer him.

"The dragon rider."

* * *

Junior hopped and frolicked in the snow that covered the top of the mountain. He loved the jump into large piles of snow and hide. He especially like to startle the unexpecting brownies, though they didn't like it as much as he did. Junior jumped into a pile of snow and wiggled his body in it so he was increased and hidden by the snow. He had to be quick, his body heat will melt the snow if he sits there for too long. He dug a small hole in the snow so he could peek out at his next victim. It wasn't a brownie but another dragon. It was Silverstorm. Shimmertail's own daughter. The two of them hatched around the same time so they were the same age, but Junior came first and he wasn't going to let her forget it.

Silverstorm never saw Junior coming. With a mighty leap out of the pile of snow he jumped out at her. "Surprise!" He screamed before literally landing on the female dragon.

"Ow! _Junior!" _Silverstorm screamed at him before suddenly batting at his head with her paws. "You fatty! Get off of me!"

"I am _not_ fat! And because of your insult, I will stay here and you can't move me one bit!" Junior poked his tongue out and went limp on top of Silverstorm's back.

"_Dad!"_ Silverstorm practically screeched out.

"You big baby!" Junior scoffed at her before getting off. Silverstorm huffed at him before getting up and turning her back towards him. She kept her chin in the air, showing that she didn't want to talk to him. Junior quickly and suddenly shook all the unwanted snow off of his body, spraying Silverstorm with water.

"Ugh! Why can't you be more dignified like Firedrake?!" Silverstorm scoffed at him again.

"Why can't you be less whiny, like Shimmertail?" Junior shot back without hesitation. Silverstorm let out a loud gasp before turning her head away from him in an upset manner.

"I am _not_ whiny!" She huffed.

Junior was ready to retort back but stopped very quickly when he heard the soft sound of a buzzing airplane. The two of them looked up to see a shiny red plane come rushing on over towards the ground. "Oh! It's Henrick! I wonder what he's doing here."

Henrick is Lola's own son. Henrick, unlike his mother, was a white and black rat, took that after his father, but he had his passion for flying from his mother. After what happened last year with Firedrake going missing, Lola decided it was high time to retire and pass her job on to Henrick. Henrick didn't take his mom's old plane, however, he made his own more modern plane that he spits and polishes every day.

The red plane landed in front of the two dragons and Henrick came popping on out. "Hello, Junior! I have an urgent message for your father!" Henrick's little whiskers were twitching madly while his fur puffed up a little. "It's from Benjamin!"

"Did something happen?" Junior asked Henrick. The little rat jumped out of his plane. Also unlike his mother, he did not wear any clothes.

"Sorry, Junior, but Benjamin requested that this is for your father's ears only!" Junior lowered his ears in annoyance at Henrick. "Don't you go givin' me that look, Junior! Orders are orders. Chop! Chop! Where is your dad?" Henrick clapped his tiny paws together in agitation.

"Fiiiine." Junior angrily huffed before lowering his head so Henrick could get on. Henrick did just that, holding on to one of Junior's tiny horns he allowed himself to be carried. Junior started to walk towards the caves where the dragon's sleep, as he was doing so he noticed that Silverstorm was casually following behind him. He wanted to comment back but decided to keep his maw shut for now. "So, Henrick, how's Lola handling retirement?" Junior asked the rat.

"Oh, Me ma loves it! All the time to herself and she doesn't get pestered by me great uncle anymore! I'd say she shoulda retired years ago when she was getting gray around the eyes!"

"But, Henrick, Lola's naturally gray."

"I mean grayer, kid. Me ma is old! Too old!"

Junior snorted at that comment, blue flames came out of his nose and hit the snowy ground sizzling on impact. They were getting closer to the caves now, most of the dragons were still asleep as the moon wasn't yet out. Junior and Silverstorm both silently dropped Henrick off at the base of Firedrake's cave. Lowering his head so Henrick could hop on. "Alrighty…" Junior watched as Henrick disappeared into the cave. Junior wanted nothing more than to go after the rat to see what was going on, but Junior knew he'd get in trouble for disobeying an order.

"Pst…" Silverstorm hissed to him. "I can hear what they're saying."

"You can? But mom and dad are in the back of the cave-"

"I have the best hearing in all of the rim. Just move to the side and let me listen…" Junior stepped to the side and allowed Silverstorm to put her ear inside the cave. Junior watched as it flicked with interest. "Okay… Okay…" She nodded before turning to Junior. "He just woke Firedrake up…"

Junior watched with total interest as Silverstorm had a serious face on. A few heartbeats of silence later he spoke: "What's happen-"

"Hush!" She snapped in a whisper. Junior's ears lowered as she stayed perked up. Her face then turned grave. "Ben needs Firedrake right away… a village-" Junior tensed as a giant shadow loomed over them. Both Silverstorm and he slowly turned around to see Shimmertail right behind them.

"Eh-heh… Hi, Daddy…" Silverstorm tried to play it off, but Shimmertail wasn't so easily fooled as his ears went back.

"I can assure, whatever is happening in there needn't involve you two." Shimmertail retorted to the two of them. "Please, go and play. Leave Firedrake be." Shimmertail gave them both a push away from Firedrake's cave. Junior's ears lowered in annoyance before he turned to Silverstorm. Silverstorm then started to trot away from her father her head held high in the air. Junior hmph'd before following Silverstorm. Once they were a close enough distance he whispered to her. "What did you hear?"

"A human village was destroyed … I don't know why it involves Firedrake, human villages always get destroyed all the time. What makes this one special?"

Junior sat down in the snow next to Silverstorm in thought. He had to think about it for a good minute before finally shrugging. "Dunno, maybe it was Ben's village! And Ben might be coming to live here." Junior excitedly hopped from his spot. Silverstorm only gave him an odd look.

"I don't know. That just doesn't seem likely, Ben wouldn't just abandon everything, even if his village was abolished. Something's up- huh?" Silverstorm had turned her head back towards Firedrake's cave. Junior looked back with her to see his father emerging from the cave. He looked determined and ready to just take off flying. Junior's ears flicked all the way up when he saw Sorrel slip some moondew in Firedrake's maw.

"Wait! What's going on! Where are you going!?" Junior screamed as he rushed over to his father as fast as his little legs would allow. Silverstorm was right behind him every step of the way.

"Junior… this doesn't concern you, son. Stay here, okay? I have to go." Firedrake told Junior softly.

"Can't you just tell me what's going on?"

"I'm… afraid not. Don't worry. I should be back soon."

"But dad- wait!" In one mighty leap, Firedrake was high in the sky, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone with Sorrel. Junior felt his ears go back again as he turned to Silverstorm. Then his eyes fell on Henrick. The fat rat was trying to shove himself into his plane at a fast rate. "Henrick-"

A paw suddenly found itself in front of Junior, stopping him from rushing over to the rat. "No, Junior." His mother, Maia told him sternly. "Just stay put… Okay? Please, go and play with Silverstorm…" She nudged his back with her face towards Silverstorm.

"B-But where did dad go? And why?"

"That's none of your concern, son. Your father will be back shortly, so don't worry too much."

Junior did worry, he worried a lot. He may have been young, but he wasn't an idiot. Something was up, he knew it and so did everyone else. Junior turned to Silverstorm, She twitched her ears at him causing him to go running over towards her, much to his mothers delight. "Don't worry-" Silverstorm whispered to him. "-I have the best hearing in all of the rim. I'll figure out what's going on before the moon rises."

* * *

"Yeah- uh-huh- don- can- _Let me finish please!_" Benjamin hissed at his phone. His voice carried and echoed around the stone walls of the monastery. He then carefully bowed to a passing monk "Sorry…" He whispered to the monk before bringing his phone back up to his ears. "I understand your doubts, Guin, but I saw the pictures the twins sent to me- Do I think it's a dragon? I don't know, Guin, I really don't, but I do know that there's no way anything human did that." Ben sighed loudly. He then looked over at a group of monks, none of them looking too happy at him in return. "Look, I gotta go- monks are giving me the evil eye. Yeah, love you too."

Ben hung up the call and gave the monks a small smile in return before bowing. "Forgive me for my rudeness please." He apologized in their language. He then stood up straight again before looking at out at the night sky.

About four days ago he got a call from Sicily. Sicily was frantic over the phone talking about how the small town she and Kyo grew up in was literally destroyed in a matter of hours. She explained everything from Ludwig showing up and claiming that a dragon, of all things, attacked and burnt the village down to them going to the town themselves. She then sent several photos to Ben's phone. Ben, of course, had his doubts about the whole situation and even debated on calling Henrick. Truth be told Ben figured that Ludwig was possibly lying to get some sort of sick reaction out of everyone as a prank… but then he got a better look at one of the photos.

The photo in question didn't look too off at his first glance. Just blackened earth and charred rubble. Then he saw it: A line that dragged across the background. It looked like something heavy was dragged across the ground. The problem was that it was in the background and so he couldn't see it all the way. He couldn't see if it made any sort of special marking or indent.

So, Ben did what he does best. He, with the help of Twigleg, went and did a little research to see if they could find anything about dragons in America. It took them a couple of days work. They went online and mostly found fake stories (and videos) on the subject.

"_Maybe we're looking in the wrong direction… or even the wrong cultures." _Twigleg had said after their first night of digging and finding nothing. Still, Ben felt at a loss and decided that it would be best if he told Firedrake about it and they could see the burnt mess together. Ben had to use his vacation days from his job to do this, so he hoped it was the right thing to do. Ben only chuckled when he heard Twigleg's soft snoring coming from his shirt pocket. Ben knew Twigleg was tuckered out from their late-night researching and coming up empty-handed.

Ben impatiently tapped his fingers on the table top as he scanned the skies for Firedrake. A part of Ben wondered if Firedrake had told Junior then Ben felt a little bit of regret tug at his chest. Yes, Ben had told Henrick to no include Junior, even though it did involve the twins, it shouldn't involve Junior. This is too dangerous for a baby dragon, an impulsive baby dragon at that. Ben felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, fishing it out he looked to see who was calling him.

Guinevere, of course. Ben couldn't help but roll his eyes before answering the phone. "Yes, Guin?"

"_Hey, sorry, I just got this idea, you searched up Native American cultures, right?"_

"Well, yeah."

"_Did you search the more specific ones from Kansas?" _

"Uh… well…" Ben paused as he tried to rack his brain. He looked up Native Americans and their connections to dragons, which wasn't much. He heard Guinevere sigh on the other line.

"_You'd be lost without me, Benjamin. Look, I'll go and search up what I can. I'll get back to you."_ Without saying goodbye she hung up. Ben frowned as he looked at his phone before pocketing it again. Ben looked up at the sky as something moved within his peripheral vision. He saw a silver dot slowly getting closer and he stood up from his seat. Within minutes Firedrake landed right in front of Ben. The whole ground shook at his massive landing, but Ben didn't mind. Right behind Firedrake came in Henrick the little plane stopped just short of hitting Ben's foot.

"Hello, Benjamin," Firedrake nuzzled the side of Ben's face lovingly. "You're going silver yourself!" He joked at his rider. This was an obvious joke at Ben's hair, yes his roots were starting to go gray.

"Eh, I'm thirty-five, Firedrake! Of course, I'm going gray!" Ben responded as he hugged Firedrake closely. Ben then backed away to look at Sorrel, the brownie was lounging on Firedrake's back without a care in the world.

"So, explain to me why it's so important we check out this burnt village?" Sorrel asked as she waved her paw at Ben in a dismissive matter. "I mean how do we know it was a dragon? For all we, and you, know it could have just been a human experiment gone wrong?"

"Well, for one Ludwig explain he was sure it was a dragon that burnt down the whole village-" Ben started to explain but Sorrel waved at him again.

"-And we're trusting what an _imp_ says? Need I remind you imps are pranksters!"

"-Well, he assures everyone he isn't and wasn't lying."

"Bah!" Sorrel rolled her eyes at Ben before jumping from Firedrake's back. "Whatever let's just make this quick! I don't want to go back to this Kansas not after what happened last time!"

"Trust me, Sorrel, I didn't want to do this either, but I feel strongly that this should involve all of us."

"Well, not _all_ of us," Henrick spoke from his plane as he rested lazily on the wrong. "Didn't bother to tell poor little Junior."

"_If_ this is some sort of giant dragon, Junior doesn't need to get involved. He's too young, right Firedrake?" Ben turned to Firedrake.

"Of course. I agree this is too dangerous for Junior."

Sorrel suddenly started to laugh loudly before throwing in her two cents. "Yeah, well you didn't want him to come along last year, and look what happened? He saved all of our behinds!"


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't like you heading back into danger, Kyo."

Kyoto leaned heavily against the wall closest to the dance studio door. Right now there was no one in the room except for Alice who was currently doing her ballet stretches against a barre. Turns out when she's not constantly trying to help Yui at every turn she was also a ballet dancer. Who knew? Still, with her job of assistant it doesn't leave her much room to get her practice in, so she's often in the studio in closing hours.

"There's no real danger, Alice."

Alice gave a loud obnoxious scoff in response before shifting and stretching her right let up as high as it could go off of the barre. This caused Kyo to take a sudden fascination in the ceiling. "No real danger you say, yet you get Ben and Firedrake involved, not just them but my own brother as well. I gotta say, I'm surprised at his inclusion." Alice brought her leg back down, which allowed Kyo to look back at her. Alice was now on the tips of her toes she went down and came back twice in a row.

"Yeah well, he was gonna shoot, Ludwig." Kyo shrugged. Alice gave Kyo a bit of a smug smile before she suddenly down and back up on her toes again this time with her arms over her head.

"Maybe… or maybe it's something else?"

"What are you getting at?"

Alice changed positions by moving her right leg up in the air at a curved angle. "Twirl me, and I'll tell you." Kyo rolled her eyes but still peeled herself off of the wall. Casually she walked over to Alice and gently tucked one arm under Alice's bent leg and grabbed on to her side and with little to no effort at all she picked Alice up and turned her in a full circle before placing her back down on her still pointed toes. Alice placed her other foot down and soon was flat on her feet. "I just didn't know you wanted a big strong man to protect you."

"What? Please! I don't like your brother. My sister does, but I don't."

"C' mon, Kyo. I don't mind if you have a crush on my brother."

"I don't, Alice."

Alice gave Kyo a low giggle before stretching her left leg on the barre. Kyo watched as Alice got down low to the ground with her one leg up on the barre. "Is there anyone you like?"

Kyo felt heat rush to her face at Alice's question she then turned her gaze to the door hoping Alice wouldn't see her obvious blush. "What's there to like?" She tried to play it off.

"Kyo-" Kyo turned back to Alice only to see her rushing towards her. It was almost instinct at this point as Kyo brought her arms out and quickly caught Alice. Alice was now in Kyo's arms and to Kyo, it felt like she was holding nothing at all. "-You should really do ballet with me sometime. You got the strength to be one of the danseurs." Alice chuckled softly before kissing Kyo's cheek, no doubt leaving a red lipstick stain on Kyo's check. Alice then jumped out of Kyo's arms before sighing deeply and stretching her arms above her head tiredly. "Do you like someone? I mean girl, you need a boyfriend!"

"Getting a boyfriend is the least of my worries right now, Alice. In case you forgot the village I used to live in got completely incinerated to the ground."

"Right. Did you ever think that maybe that's just Karma? I mean last I remember that's the same village that tried to marry you and your sister off unwillingly last year."

"Karma or not, Alice. Whatever attacked them could be coming here!" Kyo pointed out aggressively to her friend. "We have to find out what it was and stop it before it destroys us all."

"Good point. When is this meeting with Firedrake?"

"Dunno. They'll get here when they get here."

"Junior coming?"

"No. We all decided to leave him out of this one. He's too young and… truthfully might lead us into more danger with his hyperactive nature. We'll let him sit this one out."

* * *

"Anything?" Junior whispered to Silverstorm anxiously as the she-dragon came trotting up beside him. The two of them were looking down at the reflective surface of the lake for a few heartbeats of silence before Silverstorm looked back at Junior.

"Maia told Shimmertail this… but… I guess something attacked a human village. Something that's not human. It burned the entire village to the ground."

"What… but the only thing that could have possibly done that is a-" Junior gasped loudly at the thought.

"I don't know, I just don't know!… but Junior… from what I heard it was the twins that contacted Ben about it."

Junior's ears instantly perked high up in the air at that mention. "What? But… that doesn't make any sense. Why couldn't I go then?"

Silverstorm gave him a bit of a look. A look that Junior himself knew, she was nonverbally trying to tell him something. "If you have something to say, Silverstorm, then say it." He huffed in anger.

"It sounds dangerous-"

"So! If the twins are in trouble then I want to make sure they're okay!"

"Junior, you can't just leave because of the twins, I mean there's an obvious reason they didn't tell you to come along. They only wanted Firedrake."

Junior gave a low but loud snort, blue sparks erupting from his nose melting the snow below his paws. He then started to pace around in his sudden anger. He actually made a bit of a trench in the soft snow from all his pacing. He thought of the twins, how they must be in some sort of danger. He continued to pace around until he finally shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, but… I'm not taking that… I have to help them, Silverstorm! What if this really is some …" Junior paused before looking around and whispering a soft "rouge dragon?... Dad might not be able to take this dragon on by himself. I have to- no… Silverstorm… _we_ have to help them. All of them!"

"Are you crazy? I… I can't go _outside_ of the rim! Daddy will kill me."

"Silverstorm. Please, Think of Ben and of my dad. If this dragon is worth their attention and attacks them… can you live with yourself knowing that you stayed in the Rim?" Junior tried to reason but she quickly turned her head away from him.

"Forget it, Junior! If you want to leave then that's on you, but…" Silverstorm couldn't even finish her sentence instead she just turned and walked away from him.

"I'm leaving…tomorrow night...just to let you know…" Junior practically whispered to her as she walked away. He doubt she heard him anyways. He managed to get out of his mother's watchful eye once before, a second time shouldn't be too hard. He was already hatching a plan in his mind. If he had to go solo then he was going solo, either way, nothing was going to stop him from leaving. He was going to the twins even if it was the last thing he was ever going to do!

* * *

Sicily honestly couldn't believe was she was seeing. The small town they use to live in, one that was clearly outside of actual police help was currently being surrounded by (what she thought to be) Topeka police. Her and Amadeus just wanted to take a couple more pictures, per Ben's request, and it was clear that was going to be put on hold. Sicily looked over at Amadeus- who slowly stopped his truck just where the caution tape stood- he looked just as bewildered as she did. "What the hell?" He finally asked before opening his door. Sicily did the same and together they walked up to the tape where they were greeted by a female officer standing at post.

"No entry beyond this point." She spoke in a stern voice as she brought her arm out to stop the two from walking beyond the yellow tape. Sicily was honestly about to ask just what they were doing here when suddenly Amadeus nudged her. Sicily gave him a confused look, he didn't say anything but he did use his eyes to tell her just where to look. He then coughed and rubbed his nose nervously as she turned to give the officer a look over. She then felt her blood run cold once she realized this wasn't a normal police officer, none of the people walking around were.

This was all the FBI.

"Okay." She squeaked out in fear. "Let's go-"

"Wait! What are you two doing here?" A male voice suddenly inquired.

A grown man in his early forties suddenly crossed the tape to talk to the two of them. Sicily looked him up and down. He honestly had a 'dad vibe' about him. His dark brown hair was kept short in a boy's cut, he had stubble around mouth, a rather large nose, and ears for that matter, he also had laugh lines around his mouth, and finally, his eyes had wrinkles around the corners. His skin was also a tan color showing that he did indeed get a lot of sun. He was wearing cargo pants and a normal plaid dress shirt, the only thing that gave him away as FBI was the lanyard around his neck showing off his badge. Sicily caught a quick glimpse of the badge.

_Jason O'Neil _

"We were told that nobody really knows about this place, so. I'll ask again, what are you two doing here?" Agent O'Neil asked in a more demanding voice as he crossed his arm across his chest.

"What-What happened here?" She stuttered quickly. "I just wanted to see my dad." She lied.

She watched as O'Neil frowned deeply at her. Did he not believe her? Sicily shot a quick look to Amadeus before looking back at the FBI agent.

"Do you two live here?" The agent questioned.

"I used to but I moved-" Sicily started.

"-I live in Harksville." Amadeus finished.

The agent brought out a little pocketbook and started to write. "Names?"

"Amadeus Mcathy."

"Sicily Genesis."

Instantly O'Neil stopped writing and gave Sicily a look that seemed like a cross between believing and curiosity. His eyes seemed to narrow a little before he shut his little book. "Are… are you related to Charles Genesis?" He asked her. For Sicily, it felt like everything started to run in slow motion.

"That's… my dad…"

"Well, little lady. You have to be the luckiest person on earth right now."

"Why is that?"

"He's the sole survivor."

* * *

To say Dinner that night was a little tense was an understatement. With Kyoto, Sicily, and Yui really just looking at their food, not so much eating it. The only sound between the three of them was the clock ticking on the wall. Not even Ludwig, who was currently somewhere in the house, made a single noise. After a few moments of silence, Kyoto was finally the one to break the silence. "Okay… how'd he survive?"

"They said whatever caused the blast missed our old home because we lived farther away. Dad was trapped under a collapsed roof, according to the FBI he was trapped under there for two days-"

A soft 'ohhh' was suddenly heard throughout the dining room. Kyo practically had a heart attack when she saw Ludwig hanging upside down from the ceiling fan now. '_That Imp knows how to make an entrance…'_ Kyo thought as Ludwig was actually turning with the fan.

"Ludwig, do you know something we don't, sweetie?" Sicily questioned. Ludwig didn't say anything for a few seconds as he continued to lazily turn as he still hung upside down from one of the fan's blades.

"Charles Genesis tried to harm Ludwig. So, Ludwig broke the rafters in his house, thus causing the roof to collapse on him."

"Ludwig… you unintentionally saved our father's life, and honestly, I don't know if that's a good or bad thing…" Kyo muttered softly before nervously running her fingers through her ponytail. "Hey… you said you don't harm humans… when we first met? Was that a lie-"

"Ludwig did not _harm_ Charles. Ludwig was going to save him… eventually."

"Ludwig, both of our dad's legs were broken from the roof falling on him." Sicily huffed at him in a stern matter.

"He deserved it." Yui finally spoke for the first time at dinner. She then leaned back against her chair. "God, girls, this is getting bad when is Benjamin getting here again?"

"A few days tops… Aunt Yui, I have a sinking feeling about the FBI getting involved." Sicily whispered uneasily. "They might come here…"

"They already did background checks on you and Amadeus, I'm sure," Kyo softly spoke from her seat. She was the first to finally stab into her food and start eating. In fact, the next sentence she spoke was with a full mouth. "They probably also see it as a terrorist attack."

"But… how? Why? I mean Dad was trapped under the roof and couldn't call for help. Everyone else is dead-"

"The trucker. The guy that brings Jimmy items for his store. It had to have been him." Yui responded to Sicily. "-Also, Ludwig could you please get off of the fan?" Ludwig frowned at that but in the blink of an eye, he was no longer in their line of sight. "And don't get breaking my rafters!"

Sicily gave a loud sigh before finally digging into her own food. However, before she could swallow her first bite down there was a loud knock at the door. Aunt Yui was quick to jump from her seat. "I'll get it." She responded. The twins watched as she strutted over towards the door. Yui opened the door and Sicily practically jumped from her seat when she saw agent O'Neil at the door. The twins looked at one another before deciding to both get a closer listen into the conversation. So, they just walked up beside their Aunt at the door. Agent O'Neil was still wearing the same thing as earlier with one minor difference a baseball cap that was clearly in his hands.

"Ah, Ms… Sicily? Was it?" He asked. Sicily gave a slow nod to the FBI agent. "Then that must make you, Kyoto?" he pointed to Kyo.

"Kyo, if you would."

"Agent O'Neil. What is it that you want?" Yui asked him after a couple of seconds. "I mean-" Their aunt leaned against the open door frame "-Surely there's a reason you're here? Correct?"

"Ah…This isn't easy… but I was told I have to take Sicily and Kyoto into questioning."

"What?!" The whole room seemed to have exploded instantly the twins were on edge. Kyo looked at Sicily and she noticed that Sicily looked ready to just up and flee. '_Crap… why? What did we do?'_

"I'm sorry, did they do anything worth questioning?" Yui asked him tensely. She had a death grip on the door ready to slam it shut at a moment's notice.

"Well… yeah, but I'm not allowed to discuss just what here. I need to take them-"

"They are minors!"

"You can come too of course! Look… Sicily, Kyoto, neither of you are in trouble. We just have a couple of questions that need answering. We already got Amadeus, we just need your stories." Kyoto felt her hand suddenly be grabbed by Sicily. Her sister squeezed tightly causing Kyo to flinch in slight pain. This didn't go unnoticed by O'Neil as he raised an eyebrow before coughing uneasily. "Look, either you come with me now, or I come back with a warrant." Once again Sicily squeezed and Kyo straightened up and took it upon herself to finally respond.

"If-if we aren't in tr-trouble then you won't need a warrant. How about the truth?" Kyo asked him. She tried to sound brave but she knew her stutter and the slight tremor in her voice gave her own fears away.

"You aren't in trouble, but if we have reason to believe that you two were involved-"

"I'll be waiting for that warrant. Mr. O'Neil. Good day." Without a single another word their Aunt Yui slammed the door shut in front of his face. She then quickly turned to the two. "This is bad. If they convinced Amadeus to go into questioning…" Yui was shaking. There wasn't a doubt about it; she was terrified. Yui's finger nails immediately found its way to her mouth and she nervously started to chew. "Okayokayokayokayokay!" She quickly started to yell in a nervous matter she was bouncing on the balls of her feet uneasily. "We have nothing to hide! They can't find a thing."

"Aside from our dragon friends-" Kyo chimed in.

"-And the supposed dragon that caused the whole village to dissipate-"

"-Oh, and Ludwig."

"Yes?" Ludwig came down from the ceiling and jumped on the couch. He was now laying on the back of the couch like a lazy cat, his pointed tail whipping lazily back and forth. "You called?"

"Nothing to hide, Aunt Yui. Nothing." Sicily sarcastically deadpanned before sighing out and swallowing hard. "I should call Ben, give him a heads up." She dug her phone out of her pocket and quickly made a bee-line for her and Kyo's room while dialing Ben's number.

"... Aunt Yui… if word of dragons get out-"

"We'll do everything we can to prevent it. Right now I need you and your sister to get together and make up a story. Why you went there the first time and why she went back with Amadeus the second."

"But, Amadeus might not have the same story as us!" Kyo felt tears start to sting her eyes as she nervously pulled and tugged at her earlobes.

"We'll figure it out. Okay? Don't worry." Yui placed her hands on Kyo's shoulders making Kyo look her in the eyes. "I'm not letting anything happen to you two, to Junior, Firedrake, or anyone. Okay? Deep breaths." Yui then pulled Kyo into a hug before whispering a soft reassurance "We'll figure this out… I promise."


	4. Chapter 4

Ben laid snuggled up, and sandwiched between, Firedrake and Sorrel respectfully. Twigleg was fast asleep in the crook of Ben's neck (despite Ben constantly asking him not to in fear of Twigleg being squished). They were resting in Virginia and by tomorrow they'd be in Kansas. Ben had only opened his eyes for a second just to check the time in his sleepy daze. _11:19 AM_ his phone screen showed him. Placing his phone back down he nuzzled Firedrake's scales ready to fall back into sleep's warm embrace, but it seemed that wasn't going to happen as only seconds later his phone's ringtone went off. Ben, not wanting to fully wake up right here and now, reached over and just squeezed the button on the right of his phone silencing it. It only lasted for about three seconds as whoever was calling him tried again. Sighing out, and hearing Sorrel sigh out in her own angry sigh, made Ben reach over and grab his phone to see just who was calling him.

_Sicily._

Letting out a groan, Ben hit the green answer button. "Yeah?" He answered in a deep tired voice. Ben felt his eyebrows knitted together in confusion at the obvious sound of faint sobbing in the background of the phone call. "Sicily?" He asked her again in hopes of getting her to speak. After a few seconds, he finally got a reply from her.

"Don't come to Kansas… for your own safety… stay away!" Then there was a loud 'click' telling Ben that Sicily had hung up. Ben gave a loud sigh and slowly sat up now only to quickly reach out and grab Twigleg who had fallen from Ben's neck.

"Oof!" Twigleg huffed sleepily as he looked up at Ben. Ben rubbed his eyes tiredly with his one hand before grabbing his phone and looking at it. "What happened?" Twigleg questioned as he looked up at Ben.

"I'm not sure." Ben went through his recent call history and clicked on Sicily's number. He then brought his phone up to his ear and waited. He only got two rings before someone answered. Someone who wasn't Sicily.

"Hello, this is special agent O'Neil. Can I ask who is calling?"

Ben sat up a little straighter. "Special agent…" Ben muttered to himself as he scratched his slightly fuzzy chin in thought. He knew that a special agent meant something in America, that this person wasn't just a cop.

"Tell me, or don't. I already got your information so it doesn't matter. I hope you have a passport on your person, Mr. Greenbloom. I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon." Then the line went dead. Ben sucked in a deep breath, looked at Twigleg, then back at his phone '_Special agent…' _Ben thought quietly as his brow furrowed. Without answering Twigleg's question Ben went to google on his phone and quickly typed in 'Special agent'. From there he was greeted with his answer.

"Well… _Scheiße_." Ben cursed under his breath. Twigleg looked at Ben's phone then back up at him.

"FBI?" Twigleg questioned with a furrowed brow.

"Yeah, basically the MI6." Ben sucked in a deep breath and then rubbed his face uneasily. "I better call Guin about this. It seems the twins were taken in for some sort of questioning."

* * *

Sicily let out a soft whimper as she uneasily tapped her fingers against the interrogation table. She, Kyo, Amadeus, and even Alice were all currently in the Topeka police station. She was alone, they wouldn't let her with Kyoto, for obvious reasons, and she felt so… scared. Sicily just felt scared. She's never been away from Kyo for too long, hell, even Pastor Larry wanted them to be together when he forced them to marry him. She wanted her sister here with her, but that wasn't allowed.

Sicily sucked in an uneasy breath and shivered, the room felt like it was getting colder and colder with each passing moment. Goosebumps started to rise on her flesh making her rub her arms to try and bring it down. The door to the room opened and Sicily shakily looked over at Agent O'Neil. O'Neil had a manilla file in his hand as he walked over towards Sicily. He then pulled out the chair that was across from her. Agent O'Neil let out a loud groan as he sat down. He then tapped a manilla folder on the table.

"Oh god, it feels good to sit down. Long day. Long day." He spoke loudly enough for Sicily to hear him.

"Oh?" Sicily questioned him and she instantly regretted it once she realized that's obviously what he wanted.

"Well, yeah. I've been awake for the past twenty-four hours trying to figure out just what the hell happened to that town. I mean over thirty people get killed? That's a lot of paperwork." He then opened the folder and started to take out some pictures- almost all from the village.

"Well, my twin and I had nothing to do with it!"

"Well, that's not exactly what your father says, is it?"

"..." Sicily felt her breath get caught in her throat a little at that. The fact that this man had talked to her dad was enough to take the wind out of her. "My dad… he's a liar!" Sicily almost screamed at Agent O'Neil. She knew right off the bat he didn't believe her. O'Neil leaned across the table and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Elaborate? Because according to your father, You and your twin ran away, let out all of his livestock in a petty fit against him-"

"He tried to marry us to Pastor Larry!"

"He claims that's not true-"

"-Yeah, because Pastor Larry is dead and can't testify against anything. Not that he'd tell the truth anyway." Sicily grumbled the last bit of her sentence in her own bitter anger. That was when the interrogation door opened and a dark brown woman dressed professionally in a black dress suit. Her dark brown hair was high on her head put into a bun. She placed a briefcase on the table and quickly addressed Sicily first.

"-Don't you say another word, Sicily!" The woman quickly told Sicily in an urgent matter. "How dare you interrogate a minor without their lawyer present!" The woman was quick to turn on O'Neil.

"And you are?" Agent O'Neil demanded.

"Ashley Bennette, Sicily's lawyer appointed by her aunt." She then sat down next to Sicily and crossed one leg over the other. She then opened her briefcase and put on some reading glasses before pulling a paper out of her case. "You are interrogating my client, her sibling, and their two friends for being persons of interests in a terrorist attack? Seriously?" Ashley just sounded so fed up and Sicily honestly loved it. "Also, it's come to my attention that you used her phone without permission to do so. I have reason to believe you are tracking all of her phone calls, correct?" Ashley gave O'Neil a cynical little smile at that and Sicily just watched in mild glee as agent O'Neil was turning a rather nasty shade of red. "Doesn't matter. Sicily doesn't have to say a thing unless you actually have reason to believe she did what you say she did."

"You know, I just find it funny how a couple of twins managed to get away from- what they claim to be- a cult and then a year later everyone in that 'cult' is dead along with everything else. I just find that a little suspicious… but it's not just that. Did you know forensics did a test on the tire tracks to and from the town? Mr. Amadeus tires were not only found going to the town more than once but were also found leaving at least once. Now judging by the fact that you two went there the second time around then why did you guys go there the first time? Hm?" Sicily felt her heart plummet to her stomach, but before she could respond in any way shape or form, Ashley spoke for her.

"How exactly do you know that Sicily was with Amadeus Mcathy the first time around?"

"I have my resources."

"You're lying. You're doing guessing work, now, if we're done here?"

Agent O'Neil let out an audible growl at Ashley, his brow furrowed down in anger, and his death glare was on point, to say the least. Sicily was impressed. Then he composed himself in a blink of an eye. "Tell me, Ms. Genesis. Why exactly did you and Amadeus go to the village? I mean even _if_ you and your sister had nothing to do with the destruction. Then why go back if you hated it so much?"

Sicily expected Ashley to answer for her like she's been doing, but she didn't say a thing, instead, she just looked at Sicily in the same inquiring way O'Neil was. Sicily felt her breath get hitched before she swallowed hard. "I…" She paused. The spotlight was on her now. She could feel began to crack. This wasn't the same as lying to daddy.

"Sicily, you need to be honest here," Ashley told her once Sicily refused to speak for a few seconds.

"... We did go there the first time." Sicily couldn't stop herself from telling the truth. "But we had nothing to do with the destruction! The village was already gone by the time we got there-"

"_Why_ go there then!?" O'Neil snapped at her.

"Sicily that's enough-" Ashley tried to get her to be quiet, but Sicily couldn't stop.

"Because a friend of ours told us about everything!" Sicily cried loudly to O'Neil.

"Friend? There's a fourth one in on this?!"

Sicily let out a soft sob before hiding her face in her hands. "No, you won't believe me! I can't tell you any more!" her voice was muffled behind her hands. O'Neil slammed his hands on the table making Sicily jump and cry out loudly.

"That is enough! You're using fear tactics to force a confession out of her!" Ashley suddenly stood up so violently that her chair clattered on the ground.

"People are dead! And she's defending a friend who did this-" O'Neil was quickly cut off by Sicily's own cries against him. O'Neil looked mad now, his face red with anger, his eyes narrowed, and his teeth were clenched tightly.

"He didn't!-"

There was a sudden knock on the two-way mirror that made almost everyone in the room jump. "O'Neil! We need you!" A muffled panicked voice screamed from the other side. O'Neil didn't even hesitate to turn and leave Sicily.

"I'll be back," Ashley spoke softly to Sicily without even a moment's notice. She was then out of the room within seconds right behind O'Neil. This, of course, left Sicily alone once again. She felt her heart race in a very fast pace before she focused on the door to the interrogation room. She knew it was locked. So, now all she could do was sit there.

* * *

"I don't know what's going on, Guinevere, but there's no doubting that some serious shit is happening." Ben cursed out loud as he wandered the aisles of Kansas 'IGA'. Yeah, he wasn't going to let some 'special agent' scare him into not coming to see the damage for himself. Besides, Ben wasn't stupid of course he made sure he had a passport on him. One that was stamped too, thanks to a personal friend of his, of course. Now, Ben could have been petty and chose to stock up in Harksville, but he decided to just go ahead and get some food and water in a different town anyway. Twigleg wasn't with him this time around, no, Ben left him with Firedrake for now. Ben told Twigleg it was because he didn't Twigleg to get spotted.

"_You just be careful… I did some research on the Native Americans from the Kansas region, by the way." _Guinevere informed him over the phone.

"Did you find anything useful?" Ben questioned as he grabbed a can of 'creamed corn' internally she shuddered at such an idea.

"_Well… the Kaw people still have a reservation in Kansas. They're the closest I found. Look for someone named Akando. I'm sending you the address now." _Ben let out a chuckle at Guinevere. She never failed to deliver.

"So, what did they have that might solve this little… mystery?" Ben paused once he noticed that almost everyone was crowded around a small TV that was hanging up in the corner. Ben, being the curious person he was, walked over to the group to see what had grabbed their attention.

"_Well trust me, it wasn't easy. I had to look up so much for you, you have no clue. I had to go tribe by tribe…" _

Guinevere's voice just seemed to fade away as Ben focused on the TV. Ben felt a loud gasp leave his mouth and the phone slip from his hand and clattered on the floor loudly. He could kind of hear Guinevere's voice yell at him as she obviously heard the phone hit the floor, but Ben could only stare wide-eyed at the TV. The sound was off, but the subtitles weren't.

On the TV was a very shaken reporter in front of a burnt husk of a landscape. Ben almost couldn't even believe what he was seeing written on the subtitles appearing in front of this woman.

"**-Here. was where at least ten FBI officials seemed to have met their end. Nobody knows what happened yet, but we do know there was a terrorist attack earlier this week on a small village just north of where this attack happened. The FBI currently have two suspects already in custody. It's now unknown if they got the wrong people or if they weren't working alone-"**

Ben seemed to come back into reality at that moment as he very quickly put two and two together. Ben snatched his phone off of the floor and quickly made his way out of the store.

"_Ben? Where did you go? What happened?" _Guinevere asked, her voice laced with concern.

"Guinevere… There's been another attack…"

"_Oh shit."_ It escaped her mouth before she could stop it.

"Look, I have to go and get to Firedrake. No more wasting time. I need to see this for myself." Ben didn't wait for a reply he just hung up, and without looking back at the store he turned and ran off towards Firedrake as fast as he possibly could. He truly hoped the twins were okay during all of this…


	5. Chapter 5

Junior watched his mother sleep silently… peacefully. He didn't like upsetting his mother and he knew that his mother was going to worry about him, but he couldn't just sit here and do nothing while the twins and his father were all currently in danger. He knew his mother (and father) were going to be furious with him for leaving but he had to do something. Quietly he slipped out of the cave and padded outside. Junior had to be quick. He stretched his wings out and got ready to take off. Before he could get up in the air he heard Silverstorm suddenly call him.

"Wait! Junior!" Silverstorm came racing over to him her voice hushed as she got closer to Maia's cave. "I want to come with you."

Junior perked his ears up and watched her for a few seconds. "Are you sure? Won't your father be…furious?"

"Yes. Yes he would, but… someone's gotta watch you so you don't get yourself killed and _clearly_ that person has to be me." She explained, poorly, to Junior like it was obvious. Junior just couldn't help but chuckle at her.

"Whatever you say, Silverstorm." Junior booped his nose against hers. "I'm sure this has _nothing_ to do with you wanting to know what this creature is just as much as I do." He joked with her before unfolding his wings once again. "You ready?"

Silverstorm stretched herself out, neck and all, and then she shook herself before outstretching her wings."As ready as I'll ever be."

Junior looked around and made sure that nobody was watching. Once safe he flew up with ease and within seconds Silverstorm was up and next to him. Together they flew amongst the clouds and Junior felt safe just being up in the sky.

Still, a fear loomed over him. Not just for the twins and their problems but just what this creature may be.

* * *

Sicily silently twirled the end of her pigtail between her fingers. She was released an hour ago and back home with her sister. Together they got changed and and were now sitting in the living room neither one of them saying anything. All the while their aunt was currently having an absolute _fit_ over the phone. Screaming and ranting at the FBI for taking the two of them into questioning without her knowledge. Yui was in the kitchen but could be heard all the way in the living room.

"She's loud," Ludwig spoke up from up top the fan.

"As she should be!" Kyo suddenly yelled in her own rage. "How could they think _we _did this! How could they think three teenagers blew up a town so bad that it was nothing more than cinders!? Idiots!" Sicily crossed her arms and gave out a low sigh. Upon doing this Kyoto looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You disagree?"

"No. They are idiots… but it's not that… It's Agent O'Neil…" She grumbled weakly. "He almost got to me... I almost let Ludwig slip."

"Ludwig slip what?" Ludwig tilted his head and then suddenly jumped from the ceiling fan to the TV so he could get a better look at Sicily. Sicily sat up and leaned forward so she was looking directly at Ludwig.

"I almost told them about you, Sweetie."

"And? Would that have been so bad?" Ludwig challenged rather quickly before jumping on to the couch so he was now next to Sicily.

"Yes, it would have been a disaster-" Kyo silently plopped down next to Ludwig on the other side of the couch. Her legs spread out ('man-spread' as some people might put it.) "-She would have been put straight into the looney bin if she told detective O'Neil about you or that creature…" Kyo muttered and then crossed her arms. "What are we going to do now?"

"... I haven't heard much from Ben. I don't even know if he's still coming."

"Oh trust me, that man is coming. I'm sure that second attack got his attention."

"Yeah, but if he comes-"

"What? Do you think O'Neil is going to do something to him upon arrival? As far as I'm concerned he won't even know Ben is here. It's not like he's arriving by plane." For the first time, that day both of them let out weak chuckles at the lame attempt of a joke. Maybe it was a pity chuckle that made the two of them feel better or maybe they both just found it somewhat funny. Either way, they laughed.

That was when the knock at the door sounded. Instantly the twins looked at each other. "Ludwig, go hide," Sicily ordered not taking any chances.

"On it!" Ludwig quickly slipped into the hallway, probably to hide in a wall crack or something similar.

"It could be Ben," Kyo informed her sister as they both made their way to the front door.

"It could be O'Neil again." Sicily shot back just as quickly. She made it to the front door first. Yui was still in the kitchen making a fuss, she didn't even hear the knocking. Sicily peeked through the peephole quickly and instantly relaxed. "False alarm! It's Amadeus!" She called out to Ludwig and then opened the door.

"Amadeus-"

"This is insane!" Amadeus just barged on it; pushing passed Sicily. "I did not sign up for this! I'm being treated like a criminal!" He lashed out.

"Whoa, whoa! Look, I'm sorry we dragged you into this, but it's not our fault this happened!" Kyo was quick to snap back at him. "We didn't know this happen! Do you think we wanted to be dragged into that police station?!" Sicily just silently shut the door as Kyo continued. "Besides, our names are basically cleared with the second attack."

"I don't exactly see that TV on." Amadeus took notice of the black screen.

"I can't watch it…" Sicily was the one to admit. She grabbed her stomach and looked at the ground. "It makes me sick to look at." Amadeus almost looked ready to snap again, but he held his tongue with a small 'tsk' leaving his mouth. Amadeus simply placed his hands on the back of the couch and exhaled through his nose. A long and low exhale that normally reads like someone trying to blow off their anger.

"I'm sorry… I know it's not your fault… it's just that they've taken everyone in my family for questioning. Ma, Dad, and Alice… and the people of the town aren't making things better- someone slashed my tires for god sake! They think I did it!" He threw his arms up.

Neither twin knew what to say, so they said nothing. Amadeus's nose scrunched up for a moment before he suddenly noticed Ludwig now sitting on the TV. "I say we bag up to him and just tell them the truth!" Amadeus pointed at Ludwig accusingly.

"Touch Ludwig, lose a hand!" Ludwig threatened.

"We can't tell them the truth. If they learn that dragons are real then they might try and capture them!" Sicily was the first one to stand between Amadeus and Ludwig.

"People are dead, Sicily. I need you to understand that. People are dead. About twenty of them are FBI agents. This thing isn't going to stop! And… Sicily did you see where the latest attack was?"

"... No."

"Yeah, neither did I," Kyo admitted.

"Two miles from here. Think about that. Your village was five miles away. This attack was two miles away, guys… I fear this thing is coming here next. If that's the case then we need the airforce! The marines! Something! Do you guys think Ben is just going to talk this thing down?"

"No talking! Can't talk!" Ludwig piped up before anyone else could. "All frozen! Humans freeze on sight! Ludwig saw it with his own eyes!"

"Guys…" Amadeus's shoulders slumped.

Sicily clasped her hands together and silently looked down at the ground. The more she thought about it the more Amadeus was starting to make sense about this.

"Well… we can't just-" Kyo was trying to find a better alternative, but it seemed, like Sicily, she wasn't finding anything better. "I mean… we can't just give the dragons away-"

"I think he's right… I think we should just come clean about the dragons." Sicily almost whispered. Silently she started to wring her hands against the hem of her shirt.

"Yeah, but… we… Sicily."

"I don't want to! But I do feel it's something we _have _to do, otherwise, our whole town could be destroyed with us in it!"

"We…" Kyo gritted her teeth before turning her head away from Sicily and for a moment nobody said anything.

Until Amadeus said something that caused a lightbulb to go off. "I don't see any other options. Besides, it's not like there's anybody alive to ask about this … trance we seem to go through when this thing shows up."

"Except… there is…" Kyo gasped lightly. "Our dad."

"You aren't actually suggesting we talk to him… are you?" Sicily inquired with a raised eyebrow. "He isn't going to want to see us!"

"Besides, it's not like you can see him anyways." Yui suddenly spoke from the doorway. She had her arms crossed and was leaning against the doorframe leading into the kitchen. "I placed a restraining order on his ass, Not just that but I'm sure the FBI is questioning him up and down, _and_ he lied to the FBI and said you two were involved with their town being blown to kingdom come! Nope. I'm not allowing it." Yui swiftly put her foot down on the idea.

"Boom! Out of ideas again!" Amadeus threw his arms up. He looked ready to say something else, but another knock at the door. Sicily looked through the peephole.

"Thank god!" She yelled out and threw the door open. In an instant, she attached herself to Ben.

"Oof!" Ben laughed a little and lightly patted her back. "It's good to see you too, Sicily." He patted her back and she let go of him. Ben looked through the doorway and nodded at Kyo and Yui. "Kyo, Yui. Pleasure." Ben smiled and simply gave them both a handshake. He then stopped at Amadeus.

"He's… an older British man?" Amadeus raised his eyebrow as he sized Ben up and down.

"_Au contraire_. I'm German actually."

"You sound British."

"Yes, but when one is raised by a British family for almost twenty years the dialect tends to stick." Ben gave Amadeus a little smile before coming into the house.

"Adopted? I'm presuming?"

"Yes, very much so. Oh!" Ben gave just a small jump when Twigleg popped up from his shirt pocket. Twigleg looked rather tired as he yawned and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "I'm sorry did I wake you?" Ben questioned as he held his palm out so Twigleg could climb up and out of his pocket.

"Yes, but that doesn't really matter…" Twigleg gave a soft grumble.

"Whoa! What. is. That?!" Amadeus leaned in to get a better look at Twigleg.

Twigleg gave a soft scoff before proudly putting a hand on his chest. "I, good sir, and a homunculus!"

It was at that moment that Ludwig decided to make himself noticed as he now jumped to the back of the couch. Giving Twigleg quite the freight. "Tiny human! Tiny human!" Ludwig crackled. "Tiny humans are fun! Tiny humans easier to prank!"

"Ben!" Twigleg squeaked suddenly and made a climb for the safety of Ben's pocket.

"Ludwig! You leave Twigleg alone-" Yui had tried but nope, Ludwig had suddenly grabbed Twigleg, however; as soon as he had Ben had acted just as fast. It was a swift grab of Ludwig's wrist. Ben managed to hold Ludwig's hand still and didn't seem to be letting up.

"_Lass ihn fallen"_ Ben ordered never once taking his eyes away from Ludwig's eyes. There were no more pleasantries in his voice as he ordered it either. He sounded stone cold. Ludwig struggled for only a moment before giving up and dropping Twigleg into Ben's open palm. "Thank you."

Ludwig huffed before jumping to Kyo's shoulder and rubbing his sore wrist.

"Whoa… what did you say to him?" Amadeus asked Ben.

"Thank you." Twigleg sighed as he dusted himself off.

"Your welcome and I just told him to drop Twigleg, in German, of course, you gotta be stern with imps. They get a rise out of seeing your anger and frustration, not your sternness. A lot of them aren't used to having a good scolding." Ben crossed his arms and threw a well-placed glare Ludwig's way.

Yui had been the first one to ask the obvious question. "Do you regularly work with imps?"

"Oh, imps, nymphs, fairies, elves, you name it. Little mushroom people-"

"Those exist?" Amadeus sounded more surprised than anything.

"Oh yes-"

"Guys!" Sicily threw her hands up finally. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This is great catching up and all, but Ben. People are dead. This thing attacked again-"

"I know. I saw on the news. We came straight here upon hearing it. They say it was a terrorist attack on the FBI. Do you guys have those pictures of the first attack?" Ben suddenly asked.

Sicily nodded. "Yeah, they're still on my phone. I can go and get it."

"Please."

With that Sicily walked away to go and do as instructed. Ben silently walked over to the couch and sat down. Amadeus stayed close beside him but didn't sit down. Upon realizing this, Ben suddenly jumped. "My manners! I am so sorry! I'm Benjamin Greenbloom. Just call me Ben!" Ben brought his hand out for a handshake.

"Amadeus Mcathy." Amadeus gave Ben a strong handshake.

"Any relation to Alice?"

"Older brother."

"Ah! Amadeus. That's a nice name." Ben muttered rather thoughtfully before suddenly pulling out his vibrating phone. He then stood up upon seeing the caller. "Excuse me, I have to take this." Out of politeness, Ben walked away to answer his phone. Kyo only heard him answer "Yes, Winston?"

"Who's Winston?" Yui asked Kyo in a soft whisper.

Kyo shrugged in response. "Beats me."

"He's interesting. It's almost funny, you almost can't really since the 'Alpha' vibes coming off him." Amadeus crossed his arms.

"Ben is definitely not the 'alpha male' type." Kyo scoffed at Amadeus's ridiculous notion

Amadeus shook his head. "Did you not see how with just eye contact he managed to get Ludwig to let go of his friend? He's an alpha alright, he's just hiding it."

"Ludwig doesn't care for the older dragon rider," Ludwig grumbled bitterly as he crossed his arms child-like.

Sicily came back before Ben did and plopped down on the couch while going through her phone. It was only a matter of minutes before Ben came back and he looked a mixture of worried and rather pissed. "We… have a bit of a problem." Ben looked at Twigleg, who only shook his head. "That was Winston. He's another dragon rider. He popped by the rim today… Junior's gone. Not just Junior but Shimmertail's daughter as well. He managed to sneak off."

"Oh man…" Sicily whispered softly.

"Look, I have to go. I'll be back in like-" Ben paused and looked at his watch. "Forty minutes? Maybe a little longer? I don't know I gotta tell Firedrake and then help Sorrel calm him down. I'll be back." With a little hop, Ben was out of the door. Both Sicily and Kyo just looked at each before they both smiled a little.

"Junior hasn't changed a bit in the last year has he?" Kyo was the one to question.

"Not in the slightest."


	6. Chapter 6

"Why can't he just listen!?" Firedrake roared in anger as he stomped outside of the cave they were resting in. Nobody wanted another cave-in. Ben rested on a nearby rock with his elbows resting on his knees just watching Firedrake for a few seconds while Sorrel stood by nibbling nervously on a blade of grass.

"Well, he is related to you." Ben grinned a little. "That might have something to do with it." Firedrake only snorted at Ben's response.

"Please. When my father told me to stay, I stayed." Firedrake quickly argued with a headshake.

Sorrel scoffed suddenly: "Oh, please. Firedrake, you disobeyed the rules just as much as Junior has. Let's not forget his mother is Maia, you know? The one that refused to stay in the cave? I dunno, it seems like he was bred to be a bit of a rebel if you ask me."

Ben couldn't contain his laugh at that. "She- She has a point."

"Don't encourage her."

"I second that," Twigleg spoke up from Ben's shoulder. Sorrel gave him a playful little glare in which Twigleg shoved his tongue out just as playfully at her. Ben gave a soft chuckle at both of them all these years later and they still behave like children to one another. He knew he couldn't stay for too long, the twins were waiting on him and so was Yui and Amadeus. So, Ben sighed deeply and jumped from his rock.

"Alright… I gotta get back to town. I have a lot to tell the twins." Ben stretched his arms above his head- several joints creaked and popped causing Ben, and Twigleg, to grimace. "I'm getting too old for all this." He sighed but still snatched his jack and made off for the town. "We'll be back!"

* * *

In the time in that Ben was gone Alice managed to come on over, wondering where her brother had gone, so by the time Ben had returned the house was plenty full with the Twins, Amadeus, Alice, Ludwig, Yui, Ben and Twigleg. So, needless to say Yui little dinner table couldn't exactly fit everyone, so they all sat in the living room, the twins and Yui on the couch, Alice sitting in an armchair, while Amadeus sat on the floor, Ben was the only one standing up.

"Okay, so tomorrow. I'm going to a reservation to talk to someone named Akando."

"What do the Kaw have to do with these attacks?" Alice asked as she crossed one leg over the other. She had her eyebrow raised and a rather unimpressed look on her face and Ben realized that it might have sounded bad that he was kind of accusing the native people of doing such a thing.

"No, no. We're just asking them on their popular myths or legends. I'm not saying they're the cause but I can't see this being a dragon, I mean what purpose does a dragon have destroying human villages? It almost sounds like the medieval times." Ben explained to the others.

"Why can't you just accept it's a dragon?" Amadeus chipped in. "It's obvious it's not a dragon like Firedrake or Junior. This is a different species of dragon."

"It could be, but I personally can't believe it." Ben told Amadeus simply.

Amadeus frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Okay, fine, I'm not the dragon expert…" Amadeus finally just dismissed Ben rather bitterly.

"Can I come with you?" Sicily suddenly asked a little excitedly. "I just want to get out of town for a day. I can't stand the dirty looks anymore."

"Yeah, sure, no problem. Kyo? You in?"

"Nah, I don't mind knocking a few heads together if it has to come to it." Kyo leaned back against the couch. It was Yui that spoke next.

"Kyo, please don't attack anyone. I would like to make it to term." Yui then turned to Ben. "Say, Mr. Greenbloom, aren't you afraid of being here? From what I know Agent-"

"I'm aware of O'Neil. I have a passport, it's not illegal to travel, he's got nothing on me." Ben smiled in response. "_Ich habe keine Angst vor ihm."_ Ben then smirked a little, Twigleg shook his head in response to whatever Ben had just said.

"Pardon?" Amadeus inquired.

"He said he's not afraid of O'Neil." Twigleg answered.

"Bravado? Or just plain cocky?" Amadeus asked and Ben kept that little smirk on his face.

"I'll let you decide that."

* * *

Junior stretched himself out as he allowed himself to relax after a rather long flight. Silverstorm let out a loud sigh of relief and Junior watched as Silverstorm rolled onto her side and heaved another heavy sigh. "Oh, goodness… My wings are tired…" She whined a little. "I can't believe we flew that fast!"

"Well, we kind of had to, if we weren't fast then Mom or Shimmertail might have caught up with us!"

"Whew… I can't imagine what daddy's gonna say when I come home… He's probably not going to be happy."

"I can't imagine my mom will be too happy either… or my dad… I don't think we can avoid him once we get to Kansas."

"Speaking of Kansas, where are we right now?"

"Uh?" Junior went quiet and made a bit of a confused face. This alone caused Silverstorm to groan out.

"You don't know where we are?! Are you crazy? Oh, we're lost, I knew I shouldn't have listened to you-"

"Silverstorm, please. I know the way to Kansas, I know what it looks like, I may not know where we are now, but just trust me, okay?"

"I guess I don't exactly have much of a choice in the matter now do I?" Silverstorm gave a cynical laugh in retort. She then straightened herself up so she was curled up ready to pass out. "I'll be mad at you when I wake up. I'm too tired right now…"

Junior chuckled at her as she passed out right there. Junior wasn't sleepy, yet, exhausted, but not sleepy. So, until he was able to fall asleep he just looked out at the horizon. He had to admit it was rather pretty watching as the sky went from an inky blackish-blue to a more lively pink, then orange. He never got to watch the sky turn fully blue because he did eventually fall asleep next to Silverstorm.

However; he didn't really get to sleep for too long, as maybe a few hours later he woke up to a ticklish snout. Junior scrunched his nose up before he opened his eyes and looked to see what was tickling him. His eyes were a little fuzzy at first before he blinked a few times and looked at the creature in front of him. It almost looked like a type of Brownie but… different.

This Brownie was black in color with a white stomach and paws. They were smaller than the Brownies Junior normally surrounds himself with. This brownie twitched their little rounded ears at Junior. Their blue eyes were wide with curiosity. They then gave a twitchy smile showing their thin little fangs. "You sure are purty." The Brownie spoke in a slow drawl. Their voice was deeper than Sorrel's so this told Junior that this Brownie was a male, perhaps still just a cub.

"Uh… hello, to you too." Junior spoke. He was still tired and so his mind was still sleepy, he blinked a few more times before stretching himself out to wake himself up a little more. "Where did you come from?"

The Brownie shrugged in response. "I just came a-walkin'."

"Do you have a name?"

"'Course I do! Daffodil!"

"Daffodil, that's a pretty name."

"What-" Silverstorm suddenly spoke up and Junior looked over to the Brownie. "Oh, hello." Silverstorm, like Junior, stretched her body out before suddenly padding over to Daffodil. "Aren't you adorable." She proceeded to nudge Daffodil in the stomach with her snout. Daffodil suddenly became bashful and gave her a playful wave off.

"Daw, I ain't nothin' too special to look at."

"So, Daffodil, you look like a cub. Where are your parents?" Silverstorm questioned as she looked at him up and down.

Daffodil once again gave a shrug. "I dunno. I went off one day and never found them- mouse!" With no warning Daffodil suddenly took off on all fours just a little ways away and suddenly jumped and pounced on the forest floor. Silverstorm and Junior looked at one another. Daffodil had their back to them and was there was a sudden sickening 'crunch' that rang out. Junior actually tensed up at that. Daffodil then turned around- a headless field mouse in their little paws, blood around their muzzle. "Wanna bite?"

"No!" Both of them quickly shook their heads in response. Junior felt a little sick watching as Daffodil shrugged and just continued the mouse as is.

"Brownies eat meat?" Silverstorm questioned Junior is a hushed whisper so Daffodil couldn't hear.

"I guess these types do… I mean, he doesn't even talk like Sorrel or the other brownies, maybe he's like Burr-burr-chan."

"But he doesn't have four arms…"

"No, I mean maybe he's different from the others in the rim, he comes from a different breed or something to that nature, maybe Brownies here in America just eat meat."

"... I guess…" Silverstorm gave an obvious grimace as the crunching suddenly increased next to them. Both Junior and Silverstorm looked back at Daffodil, Who was still eating the bloody remains of a mouse, Daffodil continued to chew as he eyed the both of them.

"So, you guys don't seem like you're from around these parts. What brings you to Kentucky?"

"We're heading towards Kansas." Junior explained to Daffodil who just nodded along with what Junior was saying.

"I dunno why you'd want to go there. Some big scary monster is there-"

"You've heard about it then?"

"Yeah, a bunch of creatures has run from Kansas. Some looking for new homes, others lookin' for a place to stay until the dust settles." Daffodil finally finished his mouse and started to lick the blood off of his fury little fingers.

"Do you know anything about this monster?"

"... Just that they turn the sky black… that's what the other creatures told me anyways… and that just being around the monster strikes a sense of fear in you and you just want to run far far away from it…"

Junior paused and mulled over Daffodil's words. He almost felt afraid by just hearing this Brownie's words. Still, he was going to be strong, strong for the twins, because now he wanted nothing more than to be there for them. He can only imagine that the twins must be feeling so scared right now.

"Do you guys need help getting to Kansas? I could probably getcha there in no time."

"No-" Junior shook his head in response, but then-

"-Yes, that'd be great." Silverstorm suddenly pipped up.

"Excuse me?" Junior turned and looked at Silverstorm.

"Face it, Junior you might need the help. I'm not saying you don't know your way… but America is huge! What if we do get lost? Daffodil here can help us!"

Junior scowled a little, however; after thinking about it he realized that Silverstorm did have a point. Of course Junior _knew_ where he was going, but yet he knew that one wrong turn or shift and he could wind up elsewhere. So he looked at Daffodil up and down once more and then narrowed his eyes a little. "Why would _you_ want to go to Kansas. You just told us that there's a monster, who in their right mind would to go into that?"

"Yo do."

"Yeah, but we have a reason, My riders. They're there."

"Okay, well, I'm bored. There's my reason." Daffodil just shrugged again and honestly Junior was starting to get a little annoyed with all his constant shrugging. "Besides I ain't scared of no monster! I mean some humans call me a monster! So, how scary can this monster be?"

Junior looked at Silverstorm who was looking annoyed. Not at Daffodil but at Junior. "You know, Daffodil, you can ride on me if you'd like." She told him, which just annoyed Junior, but still, Junior realized that he wasn't going to change Silverstorm's mind. Like her father, once she had her mind set on something there was no changing it. Junior lowered his ears in annoyance.

"Fine." Was all Junior had to say about it. He then proceeded to lay back down- but not before heating the ground with his fire and laying down in a bit of a huff. "Now, I'm going back to sleep. Need to be rested."

"Yeah, good point." Silverstorm then laid down as well, not next to Junior, it seemed Daffodil either felt tired as well or just didn't know what to do, because he sat down cross-legged between the two of them and just started to sing. And it was nice to hear. In all honestly Junior was starting to miss hearing a Brownie sing, and regardless of what new breed of Brownie Daffodil was, he was still a Brownie and all Brownies were good singers.

Still, before he went back to sleep, Junior had a thought lingering in his mind. One that made his eyes snap open in worry. Silverstorm's words repeating back to him "_A dragon might have destroyed a human village."_ and Daffodil's presence told Junior one thing and one thing only: There are probably other dragons in America.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day was a rather peaceful one. At least that's what the day felt like anyways, the sky was a bright vivid blue, the day was crisp and cool as autumn was just around the corner, and there was a nice breeze that liked to sweep by every once in a while. Ben honestly loved this kind of weather. So much so, that he took in a deep breath in once he stepped up to his rental car. Guinevere would honestly be pissed if she knew he rented a gas-powered car, but he didn't exactly have a lot of options at the rental.

It was nice of Yui to let him park outside of her home last night, even nicer of the rental company to bring the car there.

"I wouldn't get used to it-" Sicily suddenly said fro beside Ben. Ben turned his head to look at her. "It's gonna rain."

"There isn't a cloud in the sky."

"Yeah, well I can tell you from experience, it's gonna rain. The clouds will roll in." Ben didn't feel the need to respond to her statement. Nope, they both just piled in the car with Ben being the one behind the wheel. "You know which way to drive right?"

Ben couldn't stop his eye roll. "Yes, I know which way to drive, despite what you may think, I do know my way around America." So, with that, he took the car out of park and went on down the road away from Yui's house.

Then there was just silence between the three of them. Twigleg was sitting in a cup holder between the two of them. The silence must have lasted maybe ten to fifteen minutes before Sicily broke it. "You know, I've never been to a Native American reservation."

"You know... " Ben paused for a moment before giving an awkward little laugh "Neither have I… I mean I've spoken to many Native Americans before but never been to a reservation."

Sicily straightened herself up in her seat and looked down at Twigleg, Twigleg blew her a little kiss. "He's so cute, where'd you come from?" Sicily changed the subject and extended her flat palm out so Twigleg could climb up on it.

"I was made by an alchemist."

"... You didn't make him Ben?"

"Me? Oh no, no. _Ich bin nicht sehr schlau_." Ben gave a bit of a nervous laugh. Twigleg let out a sudden annoyed 'Tsk' before smacking Ben on the arm lightly.

"Stop saying things like that, you are very smart!" Twigleg gave Ben a good scolding.

"What did you say?"

"That he's not smart- which is a _lie_!" Twigleg stuck his tongue out at Ben at the end of his sentence. Ben only chuckled again and took one hand off of the wheel and simply 'booped' Twigleg's nose in response with a small smile.

"Are there others? Like you?" Sicily asked Twigleg.

"Uh… No, unfortunately not, It's only me, but I hope to meet another homunculus one day!"

"Oh, the last of your kind? That's so sad! I couldn't imagine such a fate-"

Ben cleared his throat and Sicily quieted down. She knew what that kind of noise meant. Ben said nothing and reached up to pull on his earlobe.

"I don't mind it! Yes, it can get lonely, but I have Ben and all of the other Greenblooms, and I'm okay with that." Twigleg gave Sicily a sad little smile in return. Sicily couldn't help but frown a little at that. It was rather sad.

"Hm." Ben hummed and Sicily could see him eyeing the rearview mirror.

"Is something the matter?" Twigleg was the one to ask once he noticed Ben's frown. Ben's eyes shifted from the road to Twigleg before he smiled and focused back on the road.

"_Nein._" Sicily didn't need a translation to know what Ben had just said.

"You know, maybe I'll learn German. We have that class in school, maybe next year I'll learn!"

Ben gave a bit of a breathy chuckle in response. "I didn't know you were in school, I figured you were homeschooled."

"No, we go to public school, a bit of a surprise what they teach let me tell you, but regardless-"

"Then why aren't you in school now?"

"Because it's a small town and everyone thinks we're terrorists." Sicily placed Twigleg on her shoulder as she said this. "I mean before you came in Amadeus was telling us how his tires got slashed because of the accusations… Then again Amadeus has a bad habit of making enemies."

"Elaborate?"

"Well, his windows got smashed before any of this happened, I know for a fact that he's been in a couple of fistfights on the side, and he's not shy about pointing a gun at someone. Trust me, I had to stop him from shooting Ludwig."

Ben let out a noise that told Sicily that he didn't care much for that information. "I'm just going to ask… is Amadeus going to be a problem?"

"A-A problem?" She stuttered a little.

"Yeah."

"I…" She felt her heart flutter a little. "I can't answer that, Ben." She admitted after a few seconds.

"Alright." Ben smiled at her, but Sicily didn't feel at ease, and the fact that he was constantly checking the rearview mirror was unnerving her anymore, so much so that she went to turn around, but Ben had stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder. "We're here."

This caused Sicily to forget about what might have been behind them and turn back to the front. Sure enough Ben was pulling into a reservation. '_Wow, talking really does help time fly.' _ Sicily thought for a moment.

Sicily couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable, the things people say about Native American Reservations were pretty spot on. Dusty old homes on a barren landscape, some trailers, other rickety old homes built with wood or brick, while some looked somewhat modern. Ben pulled up to, what looked to be, a small store with a coke, that looked like it was still from the early 2000s, sitting out front. He then found a parking space, put the car in park, and shut the engine off. "Okay… this should be the place."

Sicily was quick to notice a couple of people looking their way. People coming out of their homes to look at the strange visitors. Ben made another shot to the rearview mirror before exiting the car. Sicily focused on Twigleg. "I have a bad feeling…" She muttered softly.

"You don't need to worry, Missus. Guinevere knows Akando pretty well, and she would never send Ben anywhere too dangerous."

"Describe 'too dangerous'."

"You have nothing to worry about!"

Sicily groaned but still reached for the handle and got out of the car. Standing up she didn't close the door, not yet, she was eying the rather large group to start to form around their car. She was already ready to go back and hide in the car. Ben, on the other hand, seemed pretty lax at the moment.

"I've been sent here by my sister, Guinevere Greenbloom. I'm looking for the one named Akando." Ben spoke firmly and clearly to the group of people looking at them. Sicily looked at some of them while they all started muttering amongst themselves. She saw a couple of children in the throng and one little girl caught her eye, this girl couldn't be older than five. She looked at Sicily and she just had the widest grin on her face. She then started tugging on her mom's skirt for attention.

"Does this have anything to do with the recent attacks?" A male voice suddenly called out causing Sicily to look at who was talking. A teenager, no older than she, male, tall, with dark skin and hair, that was braided in the back and, man did he look _fine_. Sicily couldn't help but blush at him as he approached Ben. Sicily could see that he had a chiseled jawline and some peach fuzz on his face.

"Yes… We were hoping to talk to him, Guinevere told me he might know something."

A couple of them shared looks before the teen that originally spoke just nodded. "Follow." Sicily finally shut the car door and she followed behind the teenager while Ben simply walked beside him.

"Thank you," Ben was the first to speak to the teenager. "May I have your name?"

"You're not a faerie are you?"

"Me? Oh heavens no. My name is Benjamin."

"Oh, good." The teen gave a bit of a nervous laugh. "Jase Wheather."

"I'm Sicily."

"The one from the news?" Jase looked back at her for a few moments before walking forward. Sicily felt herself blush a little.

"Uh, yeah, that one."

"Where's your other half?"

"At home."

Jase gave Sicily a narrowed eyed look before looking forward. They walked in silence for a few moments. Sicily looking at Tiwgleg every once in a while making sure the little Manikin was doing okay on her shoulder. After a bit, they arrived at a small hut.

"Akando is in there."

Ben nodded "Thank you, Jase." Ben went to go in and Sicily went after him, but suddenly her arm was grabbed.

"Not you two."

"Hey!" Sicily frowned suddenly. "I'm with him, and so is Twigleg."

"It's fine, Jase-" Ben tried to smooth it over, but Jase pushed Sicily back behind him, almost causing Twigleg to topple off of her shoulder. Sicily had _several_ things she now wanted to tell Jase off for, she did not feel like being manhandled right now, but Jase spoke before she could.

"Only you. That was the deal-"

"-Jase…" an elderly voice suddenly rung out as the front door to the little hut opened with an elongated creaking noise. "It's quite alright." There was a pause. "I see no harm in this woman or the creature on her shoulder."

Jase stayed tense for several seconds before he backed down. "I'm sorry, Grandpa…"

'_Well, that kind of explains it.'_ Sicily thought. She then stepped around Jase and over to Ben. The moment she was next to Ben, he quickly took Twigleg back.

"Come…" Akando spoke from the darkness of the hut, beckoning them to him. So, they did.

The very moment Sicily stepped inside the darkened hut all she could smell was the overwhelming scent of sage. It took all her power not to scrunch up her nose. Jase shut the door behind them surrounding them in darkness for only a moment before Akando lit up a couple of candles.

He was old. Older than Ben, Older than Pastor Larry. Older than anyone Sicily has ever seen. His age shown with deep wrinkles and saggy jowls. Akando looked up at Sicily and Ben and she could see that he was blind, his eyes an unnatural milky white. This would probably explain the darkness. Still, Akando knew his way around. Akando said nothing but brought his hand out towards Ben and used his two fingers to silently call him over. Ben obliged. He brought himself closer to Akando. Akando reached his hand up to feel Ben's face.

"Interesting, you and Guinevere are siblings, but you don't feel alike."

"I'm adopted."

"That would explain it."

Ben backed away once Akando was done he focused on Sicily. He brought his hand out the same he had done with Ben and called her over with his two fingers. She looked at Ben a little nervously. "It's alright, he's just feeling your face, he can't see you, but he can feel how you look," Ben explained to Sicily. So, she forced herself to relax and she leaned forward so he could do just that.

It was odd for Sicily. She's never had anyone feel her face like this before. Akando first brought his fingers around the sides of her face, then down the bridge of her nose, around and above her eyes, her cheeks bones, and finally, he finished around at her chin and her jawline.

"I would ask to feel your other friend's face, but I fear he may be too small for that."

"Yes, I am very small, my name is Twigleg, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine."

Sicily heard something move in the darkness behind Akando. She felt unnerved as she could clearly see something move in the shadows. All she saw was the tip of a snake tail and she stood up. "Sir, there's a snake behind you!"

"I would hope so!" Akando moved his hand out to his side and as if on command the snake moved towards his hand and started to curl around his arm. "I don't know what I would do without my little Queen."

This snake was not little. This was a banana python, easily about ten or so feet, with horns on top it's head- wait. Sicily had to do a double-take. Yep, this snake had horns. Akando cooed and stoked the snake from the top of its head down. "I believe I have your sister to thank for caring for Queen?"

"Oh, yes." Ben smiled. Twigleg didn't look so at ease as he clung onto Ben's face for dear life.

Queen procced to stretch herself out across Akando's shoulders. She looked at Sicily and flicked her tongue out a few times before resting her head down. Sicily, realizing that she was still standing, slowly sat back down.

"Now, on to business? You're here to talk about the recent attacks? That's what Guinevere had told me, that you believe it maybe something from the Kaw?" Akando's tone changed a little, almost a little accusatory.

Ben opened his mouth to try and defend himself or his accusations, but in the end, he must have found it best not to lie. "Yes. But, I don't believe it was the Kaw themselves, just something from legends, hidden away? Because if I'm right… this thing had to have been lying dormant."

Akando reached his hand up to give Queen a little pet. "I feared this day would come."

Sicily was honestly not expecting those words to come out of his mouth, and it was honestly taking away her optimism on the situation. "Pardon?" She was the one to ask as a nervous chuckle left her mouth in response.

Akando didn't respond right away, instead he stood from his spot. "Ohanzee."

It was like the room became twenty degrees cooler. Sicily honestly wished she had a jacket or something as she started to shiver. She wasn't alone. Ben seemed to be a little unnerved and she could see goosebumps raising against his flesh.

"What is this… Ohanzee?" Twigleg was the one to ask. "... A...dragon?"

"Dragon? No. A monster in the shape of a dragon…"

"...I knew it…" Ben whispered suddenly. "I knew it couldn't be a dragon. What is this Ohanzee then?"

"... Ohanzee… was someone I once knew… Once a person like you or me, a person that was twisted by their own selfish and greedy desires."

"Wait… Ohanzee was human?" Sicily just couldn't believe it. If what Ludwig said was true and Ohanzee did look like a giant dragon-like Firedrake then how did this happen if they were human?

"Yes, a human-" Akando reached his hand out and grabbed Sicily's hand. She almost pulled away, but he pulled her forward, up to her feet. "A person that had set fire to our once peaceful village, they killed hundreds of us, children, women, it didn't matter to Ohanzee."

"Rewind, please." Ben stood up now. "How? Why?"

Queen looked at Ben and stuck her tongue out a few times at him before turning to Akando and lazily wrapping herself around his neck, clearly, she wasn't aiming to choke the poor man, but to get herself some much-needed warmth- but then she raised herself to Akando's left ear and started to… well, snap her jaws rapidly in his ears. Sicily then realized Queen was talking to Akando.

And he clearly understood every word. "Queen doesn't think the details of what happened are too important. Therefore I won't bore you with too many."

"...TL;DR?" Sicily asked. Twigleg, Ben, and Akando looked at her in question. She sighed '_Old Geezers…' _"The basics."

"Ohanzee was a troubled youth and we honestly should have seen the signs of their betrayal, but we didn't and they sold out our village to the Spanish and helped them burn it to the ground. Ohanzee killed so many of us that day, but we still retaliated. I could only watch as the remainder of my village attacked the Spaniards, but I had my sights on Ohanzee."

"You weren't always blind then?" Sicily questioned him.

"No… but because of what I did next I can say I didn't have my sight for long."

"Akando… what did you do?" Ben seemed to catch on.

"I've given up my sight to seal Ohanzee away. I couldn't bring myself to kill Ohanzee...So, I locked them away, underground. Because of such, they've been festering in their hatred and anger and in time it turned them into the beast they were on the inside."

"I don't understand-" Sicily shook her head but then Ben cut her off pretty quickly as his eyes narrowed.

"I do, you used magic to seal them away, didn't you?"

Akando had a rueful little smile grace his lips. "An eye for an eye, or in this case… a heart for two eyes."

"Akando-"

"I didn't have a choice!" Sicily jumped at Akando's sudden increase in volume. "You weren't there…"

"What did you _do_?" Twigleg was the one to ask this time. He sounded as equally worried as Ben had.

Akando turned away from them. Sicily was only now noticing the soft pitter-patter of rain that was trickling down on the roof. "Ohanzee didn't deserve death's mercy after what they had done! So… I locked them away, deep underground with magic. I took out her still-beating heart and hid it away-"

"-Wait-" Sicily noted the lack of logic fairly quickly but was shushed.

"You still kept them alive… That could only mean you know your way away black magic…" Twigleg accused him pretty quickly.

"Yes, I knew of black magic at the time, and I still know of black magic to this day...I don't practice it, not anymore. At the time, I was angry and vengeful for what Ohanzee had done. So, I had tortured her the way she did me! Ohanzee killed my wife and two of my children! I was lucky to have one of my children survive the ordeal-"

"-You keep calling Ohanzee 'She' you keep fluctuating between pronouns… why?" Sicily asked him after a few moments.

"Ohanzee is no longer human, therefore their gender doesn't matter… but Ohanzee used to be my sister."

"Jesus Christ." Ben shook his head as he muttered out. Ben started to pace the floor as it was clear his mind was going at least a hundred-miles-per-hour. The rain was starting to splatter more heavily against the roof. Sicily swallowed a rather big lump in her throat.

"There's a way for us to fix this right? To kill her for good?" Sicily finally asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Find her heart…"

"Great! Simple! Where is it?" Sicily was only met with more awkward silence. She felt herself start to sweat after a few more seconds passed with no answer. "Akando?"

"I had no part in her heart. I've gone blind…"

Ben let out a word in German and judging by his tone it wasn't exactly a kind word. Sicily looked at Ben who was now dragging his hands down his face in a very exasperated fashion. "Well… if it was magic shouldn't there be a reverse spell?"

"No-... Yes… Ugh." Ben took in a deep breath to calm himself before giving her a proper answer. "Yes, there is the possibility of a spell-like that to be reversed… and… Well, Twigleg, do you want to answer this one?"

"A couple of things! It's black magic, so we'd need someone who knows the trade! Obvious neither Ben nor I know how to perform black magic," Twigleg started as he stood from Ben's shoulder. "Not just that but black magic almost always needs human blood to work properly, or worse a sacrifice…" Both him and Ben shuddered at that. "But more importantly… black magic is almost literal when it comes to "an eye for an eye." to do something this extreme will cost something in return. Isn't that right, Akando?"

"Most certainly…"

"So… this means finding Ohanzee's heart is our only option."

"... They'll attack before you find their heart, I can promise it." Akando added in. Sicily watched him give Queen a little pat on the head. She felt her heart sink, of course, Ohanzee was going to attack again and Sicily wasn't an idiot. Ohanzee was heading for Harksville next and they only had so long before that attack would take place. It's already been two days since the last attack… it wouldn't be much longer now. Ohanzee was a ticking time bomb and they needed to defuse them fast.

"Well…" Ben placed both hands in his pockets and let out a sigh. "Thank you for having us, Akando. You really did help shed a lot of light on this mystery."

Akando brought one hand out for Ben to take, which he did respectfully. "One more thing before you go? All I know about the heart is… you'll know when you're close. It radiates powerful magic."

"That…" Ben's tone changed suddenly. "That does help. Thank you…"

With that they took their leave, Sicily giving Akando handshake on her way out.

Sicily was instantly bombarded by rain, but she didn't care. No, she kept in step with Ben. "What next?"

Ben shook his head and Sicily could hear the slight irritation in his voice. Jase was waiting for them in the car.

"So, you know?" Jase challenged them. His shoulders were squared and he looked almost ready to start throwing hands.

"Yes," Ben just chose to ignore Jase's body language and tried to walk passed the Native American, but Jase suddenly grabbed Ben his shoulder and pulled him back. Sicily took a step forward to try and stop Jase, but Ben was faster. Ben grabbed Jase's hand and just twisted it to get him to let go. "Talk to me like an adult-" Ben let go of Jase's hand. "Don't use violence."

Jase's face turned angry and he narrowed his eyes at Ben. "You know if you find Ohanzee's heart and kill it, you'll kill Akando in return. They're connected!"

Ben's face turned slightly sour. "I've figured that might have been a possibility… Akando seemed older than I originally thought. Talks of Spaniards and what not… but Jase, you must understand that I don't want Akando to die… but you have to see the bigger picture here. Ohanzee isn't going to stop-"

"We can reseal her back-"

"That's… still dark magic, and it's not even certain! Do you want to leave her alive for future generations to deal with? She got out once already!"

"After being sealed away for hundreds of years! You'll be long dead and nobody else has to die-"

Ben put his hand up. The universal sign demanding silence. "I'm not doing black magic, that's one, and two: I'm not going to shrug off my responsibility for someone else to take." Jase's face turned angry and he turned to Sicily before giving her a piece of paper, which she awkwardly took.

"Give me a call when you want to do the right thing."

Jase then stormed off.

"Wow… he doesn't want Akando to die…" Sicily looked at the paper, just a phone number, and flipped it over only to finally shove it into her pants pocket.

"Obviously...Not, I can't say I blame him. Akando is his Grandfather… I know if the roles were reversed… or if it were Barnabas… Bah!" Ben shoved his hands back in his pockets. "This isn't an easy choice, I want you to know this…" The rain started to pour down harder. Twigleg tried to hide in Ben's jack, but it wasn't doing much as Ben was getting just as wet as Twigleg at the moment. "Let's go, we should tell Yui to prepare for an evacuation."


	8. Chapter 8

Junior let out a sudden sneeze; blue sparks leaving his mouth and hitting the field of flowers in front of him. The flowers were unaffected by his sneeze, aside from the closer ones losing a few petals in the process.

Silverstorm laughed, but not at him, she was laughing with Daffodil. Daffodil was in front of her doing a handstand, all and all, keeping her entertained. "You're just adorable!" Silverstorm cooed lovingly at Daffodil. Junior only shook his head and let them have their moment. He didn't really care about Daffodil's despite attempts for attention. No, he was thinking of the twins and how he didn't want to wait one more day to see them, but the sun was starting to rise and they didn't have any moondew. No, Kansas would have to wait it seemed. Just one more day…

Still, Junior felt uneased. The closer they were getting to Kansas the more he was becoming afraid. Not because he knew that he was going to run into his father and going to get a serious scolding, but because of this monster. He didn't know what he was going to be facing and it kind of scared him…

"You've been mighty quiet there, partner." Daffodil suddenly came up to Junior. He came up in a rather weird way on all fours for just a moment before standing up on his feet like normal.

"I'm just thinking is all," Junior told Daffodil before giving a slight snort. "Worried about the twins."

"Right your little riders. Well, I'm sure they're alright." Daffodil dismissively told Junior before sitting down on the ground by his feet. Junior wondered about Silverstorm for a moment before realizing that she was probably asleep, all this flying was exhausting even Junior was feeling the exhaustion himself. He knew he was going to need all of his energy, especially when he meets up with his dad… So, he forced himself to lay down and he looked at Daffodil.

"So, I have to ask. Are there any other dragons here? In America I mean." Junior rested his head on his paws as he waited for Daffodil to answer.

Daffodil put his finger to his chin and thought about it for a moment. "Well… I don't think I'm the right fella to answer that question. Honestly, you two are the only dragons I've seen! I mean unless you count the lizards or gators."

Junior frowned a little. That information made him a little sad. In all honesty, he wanted to see what dragons America had to offer. Oh, well it seemed it wasn't meant to be.

* * *

"Do you think it's possible that I could speak to Ohanzee?" Firedrake questioned Ben. Ben had his back up against a rock while trying his hardest not to fall asleep. It's been a long day, so long that he really hasn't had any time to sleep. He had only just now caught Firedrake and Sorrel up to speed with everything. Sometime tomorrow, yes, actual tomorrow not today, He needed sleep before they did anything else.

Ben rubbed his eyes tiredly before replying to Firedrake. "I'm honestly all for it if it's possible. If we can talk Ohanzee down before any more people get hurt or killed that'd be great…" Ben trailed off and Sorrel picked up on it.

"You don't think we can?" Sorrel questioned next.

"... I think it'll be difficult to do so. If Ludwig is right, and everyone either freezes or runs… it might not be possible."

"It's magic isn't it?"

Ben frowned and clasped his hands together in thought. "Perhaps or… It's fight or flight. It could be something natural."

"If it were then why did all those people freeze?" Sorrel asked and crossed her arms and gave Ben a bit of a look.

"... I don't know…" Ben answered honestly and looked at Firedrake and Sorrel and rested his head against the rock. He then shut his eyes and let out a loud yawn. "And in all honesty, until I get some sleep I don't think I can even think of an answer…" Ben sighed deeply. He kept his head against the rock and before he knew it he started falling asleep, but not before hearing Firedrake's breathy chuckle:

"He's not as young as he once was, Sorrel…"

* * *

Kyoto quietly scratched the back of her head as she tiredly waddled her way into the kitchen. It was almost seven in the morning, the sun was starting to rise and shine brightly into the kitchen. It was Friday. She wondered what the kids at school were saying about her and her sister. Probably not good things.

Quietly she walked over to the fridge where a note from Yui was waiting for her.

_Had an emergency meeting. I'm sure you can find something in the fridge for breakfast. - Love Yui. _

Kyo gave a weak little chuckle as she noticed that her aunt dotted the I in her name with a heart like a twelve-year-old. Kyo then ripped the note off of the fridge and tossed it in the bin next to the fridge. Opening the fridge Kyo didn't have to look long for something to eat. She pulled out a small container of yogurt and a spoon from the drawer next to her. By the time she shut the fridge and sat down to eat her meal of champions, Sicily came in.

Boy, her sister has seen better days. Her hair was just a big ugly rat's nest sticking out at every other angle. She had dark circles under her eyes and was slumped over slightly. This was very unnatural. "What happened to you? You look like you were hit by a semi." Kyo asked before she opened her yogurt and started eating.

"I just… had a nightmare all night." Sicily rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands trying to get the remaining sleep out. She then sat down across from her sister.

Kyo slowed her chewing down a bit and looked at Sicily. A bit more concern hitting her. "Wanna talk about-" Before she could finish her sentence Sicily was already starting to talk about it.

"I was running! My dream was just endless running. Something was chasing me, I didn't know what was behind me but I knew I had to getaway. Running, running, running! Until…" Sicily went quiet for a moment. She then looked down at the table and started to trace the ridges of the wooden table. "...I got to a cliff… A big cliff with a long jump down to a sweeping river. I realized I was met with a choice, stay and face what was chasing me… or jump."

"... What did you do?"

"...I woke up." Sicily looked up at Kyo a present frown on her face. Kyo sighed, put her yogurt and spoon down, got up from her seat and walked over to Sicily. Absent-mindedly Kyo started to run her fingers through Sicily's messy hair, getting some of the knots out, but being gentle all the same.

"I'm sure it's nothing. I mean things have been tense recently." Kyo rested her chin on top of Sicily's head. Sicily rested her head against Kyo's chest and for just a moment they just stood there in each other's embrace. It was Kyo who let go first. With a simple push of her yogurt cup, she gave her sister the rest. Sicily had no problem eating after her sister and she started to slowly eat the remaining yogurt. Kyo sat down and crossed one leg over the other as she watched Sicily. "So… what's the plans for today?"

"... We have to evacuate the town."

"This won't end well, I hope you know that. Some of these people, they're stuck in their ways. I doubt they'll want to leave even if the threat is bigger than them… I don't think Yui is gonna get that second term now…"

"Where is Aunt Yui?" Sicily looked around for their aunt.

"Went out. Had a conference."

"Oh, man…" Sicily rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Okay, then what should we do?"

Kyo leaned back in her chair and thought about it for a moment. "... Well, until this all blows over, we aren't allowed back at school… so… Youtube?"

"I guess… I'm going to shower first-" Sicily got up from her chair and suddenly jumped back as Ludwig landed ungracefully on the dining table, knocking the spoon and yogurt cup on the floor. "Oh! Ludwig, you scared me…"

Ludwig crackled with a bit of glee. "People in this town talk, oh, yes they do. They say some not-so-kind things about Yui and nice twins! So, Ludwig blocks their water pipes!"

"Oh, geez…" Kyo shook her head rather annoyed at the situation. She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Okay… Hopefully, that will just resolve itself…"

Ludwig giggled and jumped up on the ceiling fan and gave it a slight push allowing it to twirl weakly so he could watch both of them. "They say mean things. Mean, mean things."

"That would be expected. We're thought to be terrorists." Sicily told Ludwig. She then extended her arms out and Ludwig jumped down into her arms. "But that doesn't mean you react back with violence."

"But their faces make it worth it!" Ludwig suddenly leaped over Sicily's shoulder and upon the countertop before disappearing into the cabinets. Sicily rushed and opened the cabinet doors.

"Ha! Oh…" She was met with an empty cup cabinet, not a cup out of place. "How does he do that?"

"Hey… you don't think he blocked _our_ pipes, do you?" Kyo asked.

"He wouldn't-"

Kyo walked over to the sink and turned the faucet on. Nothing came out. "... I wouldn't hold your breath on that shower."

* * *

At ten AM the twins decided to busy themselves rather than laze around all day. So, they got dressed first and then walked over to the Mcathy's ranch. Amadeus or Alice wouldn't be there as they were still forced to go to school. So, Kyo figured maybe they could help around the ranch for a while to pass the time.

Kyo was the one to knock on the door. She smiled as Mrs. Mcathy, Audrey Mcathy, answered the door. "Hi, we were wondering if-"

"Look." Audrey instantly cut her off with a rather snippy tone and a snide voice. She had a sneer on her lips and honestly looked uncomfortable just being in the same area as the twins. "I don't want to be seen with you two. I think it's best if you stay away from our Ranch… just until this all blows over…"

"...Oh…" Kyo slumped her shoulders slightly at that.

"It's… nothing personal… but you know how people are in this town… and with Amadeus being under suspicion as well… it's just not a good look for you two to be around here."

"Just say what you mean-" Sicily sighed heavily before turning away from Audrey. She started to walk back towards the house. "-You think we did it." Sicily shot a glare at Audrey before she continued to walk away. Kyo noted the snark and almost uncharacteristic snap-in Sicily's tone.

"Now-" Audrey tried to defend herself but Kyo didn't stay around to hear it. What she did hear was the sound of the front door slamming shut. '_I hope this doesn't affect my relationship with Alice…'_ Kyo briefly thought before she rushed after Sicily.

There was just almost bad energy radiating off of Sicily. She was hunched over as she walked, her nose was scrunched up, and her brows were furrowed. She was clearly pissed but… this felt different… "It's never going to be the same now…" Sicily growled suddenly. "Nobody is ever going to forgive us for this and we didn't even do anything!"

"You don't know that!" Kyo tried to reason with her sister. "They'll see, They'll see we aren't responsible for what happened!"

"How?!" Sicily turned and snarled. "Are we going to tell them about the dragons?!"

"Hey! Don't snap at _me!_" Kyo suddenly snarled back at her making sure to poke her in the chest for good measure. Sicily stood strong for only a passing second before backing down and slumping her shoulders.

"I know… I'm just so… upset!" Sicily's voice cracked as she stomped her foot down in rage. "This is bullshit! We didn't do anything but they don't care!"

"I know they don't care, but please you need to stay calm. Don't let them get the better of you…" She quietly placed her hand on Sicily's shoulder to try and get her to calm down. "C'mon… let's go get a coffee…"

Sicily sucked in a slow and deep breath, and gave Kyo a puppy-eyed looked "Vanilla?"

"Yes, Vanilla…"

* * *

Amadeus sighed deeply. Yes, he should be in school, but given the fact that his locker was completely vandalized and his tires almost slashed, he decided it was best to skip school for the day. So, here he was driving. He had a place in mind…

Silently he looked down at his phone, yes he was texting and driving at the moment.

_Kyo sent a message! _

_Hey, so, I don't know how to say this outright, but your mom kinda kicked us out of the ranch. She thinks we did it. Sicily isn't taking this too well and honestly, I'm close to snapping myself._

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Damn, sorry, Girly, I'll talk to her. _

_Kyo sent a message!_

_Don't. I don't want to cause a rift between us. If it gets any worse she might ban us outright. I just thought I'd let you know. _

Amadeus paused his texting to look up at the road making sure he was straight. He then quickly looked down and sent a response back, one-handed.

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Fine. how is Sicily doing? I haven't seen her since my outburst the other night… I feel kinda bad for how I acted :( _

Kyo didn't respond right away, giving Amadeus plenty of time to look at the road until his phone buzzed.

_Kyo sent a photo!_

The photo was of Sicily. Laying in bed, a Mcdonalds cup laying on her nightstand, looking untouched. She was curled up under her blanket in the fetal position. He only knew it was her because bits of her curly hair was poking out from under the blanket. The TV was playing a cartoon, probably _Steven Universe_ as Alice had gotten them into that show.

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Damn, not good… Sorry to hear or rather see it._

_Kyo sent a message!_

_We'll manage. So, Ben came by a little while ago. He wants to go out tonight and try and find this heart… I guess… Sicily understood it better than I could. _

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Oh, it sounds like he's out prowling for somebody rather than stopping a monster. _

_Kyo sent a message!_

_Oh please. _

Amadeus knew he was gonna have a bit of fun with this because it's been on his mind since he first met Ben. So, instead of carelessly texting while driving, he pulled over to the nearest parking lot and parked, so he could text.

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_You don't think so? I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but that man isn't wearing a wedding ring. _

_Kyo sent a message!_

_Seeing if he's available are you?_

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Hell. No. _

_But I think he might be looking out for your Aunt. I mean, they are the same age. _

It didn't take long for the reply and boy. It was everything Amadeus hoped it was.

_Kyo sent a message. _

_Ew. _

_Ew. _

_Ew. _

_EWEWEWEWEWEW! STOP IT! NO! DON'T PUT THAT IMAGE IN MY BRAIN! _

Amadeus chuckled deeply. He knew he had hit a nerve.

_Kyo sent a message!_

_Oh, god. Aunt Yui invited him in for a coffee!_

_Amadeus sent a message back!_

_Everyone knows they aren't drinking any coffee, Kyo. _

_Kyo sent a message!_

_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_

Amadeus laughed, this time a full-blown laugh. He had gotten the reaction he wanted it and was gold. He was going to reply, but a familiar face poked up at him. Even though the plastic wrap, he knew who was on the other side. His smile faded into a scowl. "I thought I told you to meet me on 21st street." Seeing how there was no window he figured he could be heard just fine.

"Yeah, well you stopped here, just thought I'd see what was going on."

"..." Amadeus rolled his eyes and unlocked the door.

Agent O'Neil sat down and shut the door behind him. "Cosy… why don't you have windows exactly?"

"Long story."

"Hm… Okay, fine. So, I'm here, like you asked… wanna talk to me or just sit there awkwardly?" O'Neil leaned back against his seat.

"Look, man…" Amadeus sighed softly, and he reached up to twirl a piece of his hair, a bit of a nervous habit. "The twins and I… we didn't do shit!"

"I'm aware of this. You guys were in interrogation when the second attack happened. No bombs or survivors were found." O'Neil rather snarkily informed Amadeus.

"Then why haven't you told the press this? Why are we still being blamed!? People are treating us differently."

"You know why…"

"Ben…" Amadeus sighed out once again, this time more in irritation than anything.

O'Neil just shook his head, "Look, you want your name cleared, you gotta bring Ben to me. He's the only one of your party not accounted for during both attacks."

"..."

"If that's all-" O'Neil seemed like he was ready to leave. He had his hand on the handle ready to pull, but Amadeus stopped him suddenly with a rather harsher than intended:

"Wait!"

O'Neil paused.

"What if… no… tonight. We're all gonna be out… I can prove to you with this alone that neither the Twins or I had anything to do with the attacks."

"Oh? Interesting… you didn't mention Benjamin in that sentence."

"..."

"Do you not trust him?"

"Look, the guy is kinda… I'm not saying I don't trust him- I don't, but that's beside the point. He puts on the front that he's an innocent guy, but I've seen him give off some strange vibes. Plus there's the big issue…"

"Big issue?"

Amadeus clasped his hands together like he was praying and brought them up to his lips. He tapped his hands against his lips a few times before deciding on what to say next. "I legit cannot tell you. You won't believe me and think I'm crazy. This is something you have to see to believe, I almost don't even believe it myself."

"... Okay then… I'll just take your word on it. When is this meeting then?"

"I'll text you."

"Fine." With that O'Neil finally opened the door and stepped out of the truck. Before he could fully walk away from Amadeus, Amadeus had one last thing to yell out at O'Neil.

"Hey! Don't forget my thirty pieces of silver next time!"


	9. Chapter 9

"-I'm telling you, Benjamin, it took all of my strength not to punch 'em!"

Ben gave a slight breathy chuckle at Yui's story. The woman was currently punching her own fist in the palm of her hand to draw emphasis. For a moment the two of them were both laughing together before the laughter died down and Ben went to take a sip from his coffee. It wasn't good coffee, but it did the job of keeping him and Twigleg awake. Ben then heard footsteps before anyone else and turned his head.

"Oh!" Twigleg jumped a little from Ben's shoulder not expecting the sudden turn.

Kyo was standing there in the doorway. Her eyes flickered from Ben to Yui.

"What's going on?" Kyo cautiously asked. There was a tone in her voice that made Ben hum out in question. She then shifted from what foot to the other anxiously.

"Nothin' just enjoying some coffee…" Ben muttered before he took another sip of his drink. "Yui was just telling us a rather funny story as well."

"Hm... "

"Kyo, how's Sicily? She seemed rather upset earlier." Yui stood up from her chair. Kyo looked at Ben briefly before she focused on Yui.

"She's… watching TV right now, to calm down. She seems like she's on the edge of a breakdown."

"I'm afraid with this evacuation in place it's only going to get harder…" Yui muttered in response to Kyo. Yui then walked over to the coffee pot and poured some more into her half-empty cup. "The people aren't happy… trust me, some of them personally let me know…"

"Yeah, well… All that matters is that the people are safe. I don't know how much longer we have to try and stop Ohanzee before their next attack."

"Okay, Amadeus wants to come along as well."

"Fine by me, more eyes… Oh, _Danke_." Ben smiled as Yui came over and refilled his coffee. Turns out he likes his coffee black.

"What time are we leaving?" Kyo leaned against the doorframe. She then crossed her arms and waited for an answer. She didn't have to wait long.

"Probably around five maybe five-thirty, just before the sun goes down. That'd be best. Will Amadeus be flying with us?-" Ben paused for a moment before chuckling at the notion.

"Oh no. That boy is like me, his feet stay on the ground."

Ben once again chuckled slightly. "I get it, flying isn't for everyone." He then stood up from his chair and stretched his arms above his head.

"Tell me about it, when I first got on Junior I thought I was gonna die!" Kyo laughed slightly at the memory. "I'm still not used to being in the air…"

"Speaking of Junior…" an annoyed sigh left Ben's mouth before he put his empty coffee cup in the sink. "He should probably be here by tonight or tomorrow, assuming he and Silverstorm didn't get lost that is."

"How is Firedrake taking this?" Yui was the one to question.

"Oh, Firedrake is pissed and will probably give Junior and Silverstorm a firm talking to once they arrive."

"Probably more than that." Twigleg chimed in.

Ben then suddenly clapped his hands and spun his heel so he was facing both Yui and Kyo. "I just remembered! I need to go into town, get a few supplies and what not."

"... Like hunting supplies?" Kyo timidly asked as she started to mess with her fingers. Sicily had told her about Ben's plan with Ohanzee if it must come down to it.

"Heavens no! We're out of water and food."

"Oh."

"Yeah." The room became rather silent after that. Nobody really knew what to say in response to that. Finally, after what felt like forever Ben just clapped his hands again and smiled at Yui and Kyo. "I gotta go. I'll be back around five or so to pick you two up." With that out of the way, Ben left rather quickly. Once the front door shut, Kyo looked up at Yui and placed her hand on her hip.

"So… Coffee, huh?"

* * *

Ben hummed softly as he looked at the many bottle waters that were in this petrol station… er… Gas station. He knew none of these brands, but water was water… So he went for the ones named _Fuji_ as they were two for five dollars. '_Dollars equal… pounds? Uh, why are Americans so odd?'_ Ben will admit the deal wasn't too bad, the bottles were pretty big and would last Ben, Sorrel, and Twigleg for a good while.

Ben was passing the candy rack when he stopped to look. No _Mars Bars_, no _Knoppers, _just _Hershey's_ which Ben never really gave it a try. Ben poked into his shirt pocket to look at Twigleg "_Willst du schokolade?_" Ben question Twigleg as quietly as he could. Twigleg gave him a bit of a 'So-so' look. Ben took that as a no, meaning Twigleg would probably go for gnats or noseeums. Still, Ben wanted chocolate so he snatched a bar off the shelf.

So, he got into line ready to check out. He did so, paid (something that did take a little longer than normal as he was trying to figure out the odd currency Americans had) and left the store pretty quickly. It was almost instant, the moment he stepped out his phone vibrated. With one hand he finished his phone out of his back pocket and checked his messages. He had one from Kyo and two from Guinevere.

_Guinevere sent a message!  
Hey, Winston just arrived here and I was thinking do you need any sort of back-up? You've been quiet…_

_Guinevere sent a message!  
Ben, answer me, please._

Ben frowned a little. "Guinevere texted me." He told Twigleg once he was sure he was in the clear. Twigleg poked up from Ben's pocket fairly quickly.

"Is everything alright?"

"She wants to know if we need back-up."

Twigleg looked ready to answer but quickly shut his mouth. "Do _you_ think we need back-up?"

Ben kept his frown on his face. Truth be told he hasn't been avoiding Guinevere… but he has been debating getting her anymore involved. Given what he knows now and he knows that Ohanzee sounds… dangerous, insanely so. This is a person who's own anger twisted them into the form of a dragon… but that insanity was telling Ben to include back-up just in case. Ben knew that Tattoo wouldn't hesitate to fly down and wouldn't be more than a few hours away. Tattoo is faster than Junior that is.

"I… don't know… I'll have to think on it some more…" Ben concluded finally he exited out of Guinevere's messages and focused on Kyo's. He also used his free hand to open the chocolate bar and take a bite. He finished chewing before he spoke again. "I mean it's just nothing then there's no point in having them coming here, right?"

"You do have a point, but if it becomes uncontrollable?" Twigleg argued pretty quickly. Ben knew that Twigleg did have a point just as much as Ben's point was. Truthfully they still had no idea what they were up against.

Ben went to reply but before he could he misstep a curb and suddenly he went tumbling down. The water bottles hit the ground first as Ben let go of the bag to quickly shield Twigleg from the fall. Ben's knee hit the ground and he felt it twist uncomfortably. Thankfully, he managed to stop himself just before he fully hit the pavement. "_Scheiße_…" Ben groaned for a moment a pain radiating from his knee that was still twisted."Are you okay?" He asked Twigleg.

"I'm fine! Are you alright?!"

Ben was about to answer with a 'yeah' and shrug it off like it was nothing, but here's the problem. His knee was seriously hurting from this. So, with another painful groan, Ben slowly, and painfully, untwisted his knee and simply sat down on the curb. His knee didn't pop out of place thankfully. Still, it hurt and he was pretty sure his knee was starting to swell a little. "Remember when I could take hits like a champ and be fine? Now, I walk funny and my knee swells…" Ben gave a weak chuckle at his own joke.

"-Are you alright?"

Twigleg let out a sudden noise and quickly try to hide, but stopped suddenly once he realized it was Amadeus. Ben looked at Amadeus for a moment before he tried to stand up and just shake it off; unfortunately, the moment he put any pressure on his bad knee he almost went tumbling back towards the ground. Amadeus grabbed Ben by his arms to stop him from falling. "Ah… no… I'm not."

"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Amadeus asked, he actually sounded concerned for Ben.

"Hospital? No… Can you help me get to Firedrake?" Ben really didn't want to lead Amadeus to Firedrake, but it seemed he didn't have much of a choice there is no way he could make the walk himself.

"Uh… sure." This clearly wasn't Amadeus's first time helping someone like this. With a quick pull he already had Ben's left arm over his shoulders which allowed Ben to keep leg up in the air. Amadeus leaned down and picked up Ben's bag while he was at it. "I was just getting some gas when I saw you take that tumble." Amadeus explained while leading Ben back to his truck, thank god they wouldn't have to walk it seemed. "Looked like it hurt."

"Didn't exactly feel good…"

"So, how will a dragon help you? I mean, I know your leg has to hurt, but I think having it set on fire is a bit extreme."

"Oh? The Twins never told you? Silver dragons fire heals."

"Huh… healing fire, sounds a little uh… oh..." Amadeus made a sudden sound that made Ben narrow his eyes slightly.

"Oxymoron?"

"Dick."

Ben couldn't stop his laugh. "No, an Oxymoron is a contradictory statement. I get it, healing fire does sound counterproductive, their tears burn by the way."

"Why kind of ass backwards logic is that?!"

The two of them chuckled for a moment before they finally got to Amadeus's truck. Amadeus opened the passenger side for Ben, and managed to help hoist Ben up on the passenger side. Of course it hurt like hell, but Ben tried to not let it bother him too much. The door shut and Amadeus came over to the driverside, hopped in, and started the engine up. "Where to?"

"Just go straight down Main street."

Amadeus took off and for a moment it was silence between all three of them. Until Ben noticed something: "Why don't you have windows?"

"Eh, long story…"

"Fair enough…" Ben crossed his arms slightly and looked down at his knee. Swollen for sure. '_What happened? I remember getting knocked around and shrugging it off like nothing, now?...'_ Ben frowned he knew the answer, but he didn't like it. It was actually a little humiliating that he needed help just walking… oh, well… he'll be right as rain in no time. Ben looked at Amadeus for just a moment and took note at how tense Amadeus seemed to suddenly be. He was clutching at the steering wheel and just looked rather nervous.

"...You know, Bestie, our cow, once kicked Alice in the shin so hard that it dislocated her knee." Amadeus decided to start up a conversation. To ease his own thoughts? Maybe. Ben… didn't engage. "... yeah, she had to wear a knee brace for weeks… she was pretty upset about it…"

Ben only let a noise from his throat, but still didn't engage. He was starting to get a feeling. A feeling that it was no coincidence that Amadeus was at that gas station. The sun was starting to set now, so, Ben looked at the time on his phone. It was just becoming Five PM.

"Can I ask you a question?" Amadeus seemed rather un-edge and that alone made Ben a little nervous.

"I guess…"

"Why do you hang around the twins?"

"... Because they're friends with Junior, and they saved Firedrake, Sorrel, and I just last year."

Amadeus continued to clutch the steering wheel, Ben decided to go a head and just leave his phone on his lap. He had a feeling he was going to need it. Twigleg also picked up on this tonal change and jumped up on Ben's shoulder. "You know what almost happened to them, right?"

"You mean the forced marriage thing? Yeah… turn left." Ben instructed, Amadeus did as he was told. "Good thing they got out of it before it happened."

"... yeah… I just think it's a little… strange that you… a fully adult man-"

"Stop."

"-No! I'm not done talking-"

"I mean stop, you wank, we're here!"

"Oh…" The truck came to a halt and once it did so Ben turned to Amadeus.

"I get your concerns, I do. The twins had a hard life leading to this point, and I want it to be known that I do not intend to do any harm to them. If I did do you think Yui would let me near them?"

"I just think it's weird that you have them in your phone-"

"They're dragon riders! I'm the dragon rider! Winston is a dragon rider! I like to keep in touch with all the dragon riders if possible!" Ben suddenly poked Amadeus in the chest. "I get it. I do, but you are overstepping your boundaries!"

"It's just-"

"You're eighteen, correct?"

"I- yes. I am."

"Why do _you_ hang out with the twins? I mean they're underage after all!"

"Watch it, old man! You're in my truck- ah!"

Maybe Sorrel had heard the fighting from inside the truck, maybe Firedrake had decided to see who was loitering outside of the cave, but regardless of why, Firedrake had leaned down to look inside the window. His eyes watching the two of them intensely for only a moment. Amadeus suddenly jumped back against his door with a loud "holy-!" leaving his mouth.

"I told you it was Ben, Sorrel!" Firedrake's voice boomed outside of the truck.

"You got lucky!" Came Sorrel's reply.

"Thank you for your help, Amadeus." Ben opened the door to the truck.

"Uh, wait your knee-"

But Ben didn't listen. He steadily got out of the truck, nearly tumbling down on his way out, but got down. "-There was a bit of an incident, sorry if I scared you." Ben explained as he hopped along the truck.

Amadeus didn't want to get out, not with that monster looming over him and his truck, but at the same time… he had to see just how big this dragon was. So, with only slightly shaky hands, he opened his door and hopped on out. "-I tripped and I think I tore something." He heard Ben explain as he lamely tried to hop the rest of the way to the dragon- no… _his_ dragon, Amadeus realized. This dragon was huge… at least the size of a two story house, maybe even bigger than that. Then this… furry just came out of nowhere. Brown with lighter brown polka dots on her fur, she looked like a bipedal cat. She instantly took offense to Amadeus.

"Are you even trying to keep us a secret anymore, Ben!?"

"Sorrel, he's with the twins. Don't worry… he's okay." Ben explained to her as he slowly lowered himself to the ground with a painful noise leaving his mouth.

"Are you helping us, tonight?" Sorrel asked him, but honestly Amadeus wasn't even paying attention to her, no his focus was still on Firedrake and Ben. Firedrake sniffed Ben's bad leg.

"Did it pop out this time?"

"No, but I tore something, can't walk on it."

"You really need to be more careful, Benjamin."

"I know."

"You're not as young as you once were."

"... I know…"

'_Did it pop out this time? So, it seems like Ben's been hurting himself more frequently with his older age.'_ Amadeus picked up pretty quickly. Firedrake then leaned up a little, sucked in a deep breath, got down and blew blue fire on Ben's leg. "Whoa!" Amadeus took a sudden step forward, forgetting momentarily about what he and Ben had talked about earlier. It was then that he was pushed back by the furry.

"It's fine… he's healing Ben." Sorrel explained to Amadeus. The flames only lasted for a few seconds but once Firedrake was done it became clear that the flames didn't even burn. The plants actually seemed to grow greener where they had been hit. Like nothing had even happened Ben stood up and dusted himself off. "Thanks, Firedrake." Ben smiled at the dragon.

"Be. Careful. I don't want to think as to what will happen if I'm not around and you get hurt again."

"Of course." Ben then focused on Amadeus. It was at the moment that everyone was now focusing on him. A grumpy looking Twigleg included. "So, as Sorrel asked, you're joining us tonight, right?" Ben asked after a few moments.

"Yeah… I just… gotta do something first…" Amadeus rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Right, well, Kyo says you prefer to be on the ground, so we'll text you where we'll be if we find what we're looking for."

"I wasn't informed on what it is you're all looking for."

Ben just gave Amadeus a smile. A creepy smile that honestly just sent chills up his spine. "We're looking for the monster that blew up the town."

"..."

* * *

Guinevere let out a low sigh as she brought her coffee up to her lips. The daylight only just shining through her window. She's been up since four am hoping to get a text back from Ben, but nope. '_Damn him.'_ she thought in her anger. He does this and it pisses her off. He gets in over his head and and goes quiet making her wonder if he was okay or not until he eventually comes home.

It drives her crazy.

Guinevere pushed herself out of her chair and silently walked downstairs. She wanted some scones and knew there were blueberry ones in the fridge. The rest of the family was still asleep, so she stayed quiet with each step down. She quietly tiptoed to the kitchen, expecting to be the only one in there, she was pretty surprised to see Winston sitting at the dining table, scrolling through his phone with one hand while eating a scone with the other, getting crumbs on the table in the process.

"I hope you plan on cleaning those crumbs." Guinevere walked past Winston. A couple of little creatures were by his feet going for a few stray crumbs. "Also, that better not be the last scone!" She jokingly huffed.

"Have you heard from Ben?" Winston asked her as he shifted to look at her.

Guinevere opened the fridge and pulled out a scone, quietly she put it in the oven to warm up. She shut the door and looked at him. "Please…" She rolled her eyes. "You know Ben…"

"Why is he so stubborn?"

Guinevere frowned a little. "I don't think I can answer that…"

Winston rolled his eyes ever so slightly before he continued munching on his crumbly scone. Guinevere stood by the oven as she waited on her scone. She looked at her phone but didn't have a new notification. "Stubborn, Old man." She couldn't help but grumble.

"Aren't you the same age as him?"

Guinevere simply stuck her tongue out at him. There were a few more moments of silence and during that silence Guinevere pulled her warmed scone out of the oven and on a plate. With a newly warmed scone, she sat at the table and started to eat. "I'm going to head out with Tattoo tonight. We got more mail to deliver.

Guinevere nodded "Okay. I can't expect you to wait around for Ben to answer, if he answers at all." She told him

When Winston nodded in agreement it was odd. Both of their phones suddenly vibrated. First once, and before they could see who had messaged the both of them their phones vibrated again, and then again, and then stopped after the fourth vibration. Winston, who had his phone in his hand got to his messages before Guinevere could look at hers Winston spoke up: "Uh… Guin…" Guinevere looked at him and he showed her his phone's messages.

_Ben sent a message!_

_911!_

_Ben sent a message!_

_SOS!_

_Ben sent a message!_

_SOS! __**SOS!**_

_Ben sent a message!_

_**SEND HELP! **_

Guinevere was up and out of her seat instantly. She forgot all about her scone and was already tearing off her bathrobe. "Get Tattoo ready! We've got Moondew!" She was racing up the stairs and Winston jumped from his own seat.

"It's just going to be us Three?!" He called back to her, she didn't even look back at Winston as she charged up the stairs.

"Probably not! Just go get Tattoo up!" Guinevere heard the front door slam shut not even seconds later. "Oh Jesus, what did he get himself into!?" Guinevere whispered to herself. "I knew I should have gone with him, I knew I should have…" She continued to whisper all the while she was getting out of her sleeping clothes and into an actual outfit. Guinevere, once her shirt was on, snatched her phone up and placed it between her ear and collarbone while trying to get some shorts on. The phone rang and rang and rang.

"Ben answer the phone! Answer the phone!" She urgently whispered. No answer. "Shit!-" Her phone vibrated in her hand. It was a text from Ben.

_Ben sent a message!_

_Ben sent a photo!_

Guinevere frowned at the photo Ben sent. She couldn't see anything. It was just black. Straight black. Maybe it was a mistake? But she could see two yellow spots...So she quickly turned her brightness up.

"Oh… no…"

The picture was of Firedrake… there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she was looking at Firedrake. The two yellow spots in the picture were his own eyes. Only the problem was… Firedrake wasn't silver. His scale, his color… it was gone. He was completely and utterly black like everything else around him.

Whatever this was had gotten Firedrake. This was no longer a simple mission. They were dealing with something completely and utterly dangerous. Ben was in danger and so was Firedrake…and so was all of Kansas...


	10. Chapter 10

Sicily knew that something wasn't right. For one she couldn't see anything, she wasn't blind, she knew that much because she could see her arms and legs. Sicily honestly felt like she was in a dream of sorts. When she looked down at her hands she only moved them side to side. They moved, but it felt slow, sluggish and unnatural, and when they moved her hands seemed to move almost frame-by-frame in a sense.

Where was she again? She stated she couldn't see anything and that wasn't a lie she couldn't see anything in front, behind, or beside her, but she could hear.

She could hear amazingly well in this void. She could hear the sound of wailing. The longer she listened to the crying the more she became aware that it wasn't one person crying. No. These were wails and screams of other people. Each ranging in a different pitch or tone, but all keeping in the same frequency. It was strange. Instead of doing the reasonable thing and walking away from the crying she instead started to go towards it.

Her body moved slowly like she was trying to push herself through molasses. Like before with her hands she moved frame-by-frame at a snail's pace. Still, the more she walked the louder and more unsettling crying became. It became frantic and unnerving. Sicily couldn't see anything… that was… until she suddenly saw it.

Sicily didn't know how to describe this thing in front of her. It was like a black goo. Only it was shaped like a person kneeling.

This goo was breathing, and crying the loudest out of all of the cries. It was almost looking at a living breathing tar pile. The goo was dropping on the floor below, but it never vanished off of the humanoid. The humanoid suddenly glanced up at Sicily. The eyes were captivating to Sicily, an unusually bright yellow color, like sunflower yellow almost, their eyes glowed they were the only thing of color in this dark chasm.

"Y-You don't cry…" Then a voice suddenly spoke amongst the whining and crying in the background. This voice still spoke enough for Sicily to understand it. Their voice was whiny, almost child-like. "Everyone cries."

"Why would I cry?" Sicily asked the goop and yes, amongst the black goopy mess she could see the tears falling from the eyes of this creature. Slowly, Sicily squatted down so she now facing with the creature. "Who hurt you?" Sicily questioned next.

"It's a long story…"

"Well…" Sicily plopped down next to goo, now on her butt, she stayed seated. She then reached up with one hand to wipe a tear away from the goo's face. "I guess it's a good thing I have all day then, isn't it?"

"Aren't you even curious as to what I am? Or where you are?"

"Of course I am! But I'm more curious as to why you're crying."

"I-I see…"

* * *

Ben woke with such a start that the first thing he did was jump to his feet. "Whoa!" Someone grabbed him quickly by the collar of his shirt, the shirt he realized he wasn't wearing before. It a simple white long-sleeved shirt. Ben was face to face with Jase. Instant confusion. He looked at Jase up and down for a few seconds with pure confusion. This just wasn't adding up to Ben. He was with Firedrake last… right? Ben realized that part of his memory was blank and that scared him.

"J-Jase?" Ben all but whispered in his confusion. Ben blinked rapidly a few times before focusing back on Jase.

"Easy…" Jase let go of Ben's collar. Ben rubbed the spot where Jase had grasped for a second before focusing back on Jase. "You took a bit of a blow…"

"What happened?" Ben was trying his hardest to try and remember the last thing he did but everything was so foggy that all he could remember was Firedrake and something involving the Twins.

"I think you need to sit down first of all." Jase quickly and quietly led Ben back to the cot he's been resting on. Ben, still a little dumbstruck, rested his arms on his knees when he sat down and looked up at Jase. Jase walked over to the nearest sink and started pouring Ben a glass of water.

The place they were currently resting in was a trailer. Tiny and compacted. It was a one-room place. It was then that it started to click for Ben. He was back at the reservation. "... What happened?" Ben questioned Jase as he took the glass of water.

"You got what you wanted. You found Ohanzee's heart…" Jase explained, borderline condensing, to Ben.

"Why don't I remember it then?"

"...We were wrong about Ohanzee and their powers and unfortunately, we had to learn about that through your little group."

Ben felt his eyes go wide. A voice flooding inside his head. He couldn't remember what was said, but he remembered the voice. Ben dropped his glass of water and grabbed on to his head. All he could hear was just a horrendous high pitched ringing that verberated through his head and grew deafening with every second. "Whoa! Whoa!" Ben felt Jase's hand on his shoulder which was slowly starting to bring him back to what was around him.

Ben's heart rate started to steady, the ringing was lowering to a more tolerable pitch, and his head wasn't swarming anymore.

"Easy...deep breaths…"

"I can't answer that… but he can." Jase pointed to a sleeping Twigleg that was resting on the coffee table.

"Twigleg… is he okay?"

"He should be fine. Like I said you took a bit of a blow. Meaning he also took a bit of a blow."

"...The twins! They were with us! Where are they! I need to-" Ben forced himself up to his feet, ready to leave. He clearly remembered the twins being with him. Bit by bit his memory was coming back. he remembered the twins, and he remembered a fight. Between the twins? No…

Jase forced Ben back down on the cot. "Stop. Before you hurt yourself, please."

"... Amadeus…" Ben suddenly said out of the blue as another memory came up. "He was there… I remember…" Ben put his hand to his forehead and felt his brow furrow. "We got into a fight? I think." Ben narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong with my memories?" Ben finally asked Jase. Ben looked at his own hands and realized he was trembling. "Why are they so scattered."

"... Tch." Jase sucked on his teeth before sitting down next to Ben. "Look, I came in at the end… I know it was a mass panic. Your group not only found her heart but…" Jase sighed slightly. "Ohanzee, it turns out, is not a dragon or someone formed into a dragon by their anger."

"What?"

"God…"

Ben jumped at the new voice and turned to see who was talking. Ben felt himself suddenly square up slightly. It was Jason. For a second Ben wondered how he knew this was Jason, he never met Jason… right? No. Ben groaned suddenly the ringing was coming back to his head. Thankfully not as loud or abhorrent as last time. It faded away after a few seconds.

"I've seen it…"

"You need to be resting." Jase stood up suddenly. He had his arms crossed and seemed to be rather upset about Jason's intrusion as he now had a frown on his face.

"Can't." Jason spoke stubbornly with a head shake, "Not only is my head still pounding but after what I saw… I can't." He turned to Ben quickly. "What don't you remember?"

"... A lot…"

Jason sighed and chose to sit down on Ben's right. Jase chose the left. Ben was feeling almost entrapped as he was sandwiched between the two men. "I don't know what happened before I arrived."

"It was you… you were the reason I started yelling at Amadeus!" Ben suddenly remembered.

"Yeah… I'll admit, I should have stayed home, but I didn't, and now I'm roped in, but I guess I'll just start from where it all started for me."

* * *

"_I was just outside my car taking a smoke when Amadeus approached me..."_

Jason quietly puffed on his cigarette. Outside of his car of course, if his wife would smell the smoke she'd kill him. He inhaled for a second before exhaling the smoke and flicking the cigarette so the ashes would fall. Jason's mind flickered for just a brief moment to Lee.

Lelia was her full name, but that didn't matter anymore. She's gone. Unfortunately one of the ones to have died during the second attack. She was his friend and now…"

Jason huffed before sticking the smoke between his lips and taking another drag. He didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to think about her, he just wanted to find the terrorist and stop this madness; hopefully tonight. If Amadeus was right that is. Normally Jason wouldn't even think of taking Amadeus's word after all Amadeus was still a suspect and so were the twins, but he knew because of Lelia and all the others dead the case would be transferred to Homeland security before too long. No. Even though his boss wanted him off this case he wasn't going to stop. Not until this criminal was stopped.

Now, Jason wasn't dumb, he knew Benjamin Greenbloom has been in Kansas for a while now. He followed Ben and Sicily to the reservation; it seemed Benjamin wasn't exactly an idiot. He saw Jason from the very start so Jason learned to keep a distance after that so not to trigger anything suspicious. What Jason couldn't figure out is why Benjamin slept in a damn cave and not a hotel. He tried to get close. Tried. Something in his gut kept telling him to turn around before he got too close. Jason knew to always listen to his gut.

With another sigh, Jason flicked his cigarette away from him. The ground was gravel, the cherry will go out without starting a fire.

That's when Amadeus showed up. His windowless truck speeding down the gravel road at a rate that would most likely get him in trouble with the local cops, good thing Jason didn't give a shit right now. Amadeus's tires screeched to a halt sending gravel flying in every direction. Before Jason could approach Amadeus was already out of his truck. "Look, man, before you start-" Amadeus came around quickly. "I retrack my statement!"

"It's recant. Dumbass." Jason rolled his eyes.

"Retrack, recant, whatever! You need to listen to me. Okay? I still think Ben is weird, but I don't think he-"

"I'll be the judge on that."

"-No, you need to listen to me-"

"No. I don't! Maybe you forget but people are dead, people I knew and cared for! You can recant your statement about Ben all damn day, I won't listen. Not until I get a chance to talk to him. Now, you're taking me to him-"

"No-"

Jason didn't even hesitate, he pulled out his gun. Drastic move, yes. He didn't care. He was so close and he wasn't about to let a wishy-washy nobody stop him."Yes. You are."

"You don't want to play this game with me-" He saw Amadeus's eyes flicker to his truck quickly and Jason knew what was up instantly.

"If you think about going for Daddy's shotgun that's most likely sitting in the pick-up bed of your truck you're going to regret it. I will get to you first, do you hear me?"

"Do you think threatening me is the best idea?"

"No, but it's the last idea I have at the moment. You're gonna take me to Ben and his little group… Now."

"... Fine. Get on the passenger side."

Jason did as he was told, making sure to keep the gun pointed at Amadeus the whole time. Now, again, Jason wasn't an idiot. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but at the same time his gun wasn't loaded, but Amadeus didn't need to know that now. Amadeus climbed in the driver's side and simply took off.

The ride was awkward, to say the least, Amadeus drove and was tense the whole time. He felt his fingernails dig into the leather of his steering wheel. He kept glancing back at Jason and the gun. '_It's a standard Sig Sauer 9mm…' _Amadeus felt the sweat start to bead at the crown of his head. Amadeus sucked in a deep breath and focused on driving. "...You haven't seen what I've seen, man." Amadeus finally spoke.

"Hm?"

"Like I said yesterday, I can't tell you… you'd think I'm crazy."

"I'm an FBI agent… try me."

"..." Amadeus just kept his mouth shut and continued to drive. Jason narrowed his eyes at Amadeus's unwillingness to speak about the issue. "You know you could have just followed me, right?" the subject changed.

"I couldn't risk you taking me in the wrong direction and wasting my time." Jason was pretty blunt about it.

There was more silence between them. Jason looked out the window briefly. He wanted to see the sky as the sun was starting to set as the twilight hour was just starting. Still, as Amadeus continued to drive Jason was beginning to feel a little unnerved. Not because he was currently holding Amadeus hostage and carjacking him at the same time, but something else didn't sit right with him,

It was the same feeling as to whenever he would get too close to the cave where Ben slept. This time, however, Jason was going to squish his feeling of unease down and just go.

The drive wasn't that much longer. All Amadeus had to do was go off the road and down a pretty intense hill and into a small gorge. It wasn't anything special, not like the Cedar gorge. Just a tiny gorge with a river running through it. It seemed to go on or a bit, maybe a mile or two at the most. '_The sky is turning darker'_ Jason realized as the sun was starting to set below the skyline and turn the sky a dark shade of inky black.

Amadeus parked his car right in front of Benjamin. The lights overexposed Ben to the point of almost being able to see him, and Ben himself put his arm up to try and block the lights off. "Turn your brights off, mate!" Ben yelled from the outside. It seems that because of the brights Ben couldn't see inside the truck. Amadeus looked at Jason. Jason got what he wanted so with a rather smug smirk he tucked his gun away.

"Thank you for your help."

"You're a dick." With that retort Amadeus shut the truck's engine off, thus killing the lights and allowing Ben to see.

Ben blinked a few times to regain his sight. While he was doing that Jason stepped on out of the truck. He was the first to greet Ben.

"Who are you?" Benjamin asked Jason a clear cautious tone in his voice as he took a slight step back. Jason noted the _thing_ that seemed to be on Ben's shoulder. It looked like a doll or something of that sort. That ticked off the 'creepy' box for Jason.

"If my memory serves me right, we've spoken on the phone." Jason smiled at Ben.

"Oh-" Ben sucked in a deep breath through his teeth, and at that moment Amadeus got out of his truck and the very moment Ben saw Amadeus he went _off._ "You-!" Ben pointed, this caused Amadeus to jump suddenly, he, Amadeus, opened his mouth to defend himself, but Ben wouldn't let him. "-_You! Kotzbrocken! Backpfeifengescht! Weichei! _Pansy!" Ben completely roared out.

'_Bi-lingual.'_ Jason noted as well.

"Uh, I recognized one of those words." Amadeus scratched his head. "I'm going to say the things you said in German weren't nice."

"Not at all." The 'doll' suddenly spoke and even turned it's head to give Ben a rather disappointed look.

"Is that a robot or something?" Jason rather calmly asked as he pulled his notebook out from his coat pocket. He wanted to get this impromptu interrogation done and over with.

"You need to leave!" Ben simply pointed towards Amadeus's truck. "You need to go with him!" He snarled at Amadeus.

"Oh, come on now, we just got here and I have some questions."

"Look, I'll be glad to answer any questions you have, later, not now!"

"Ben!" Everyone turned as Kyo came rushing towards the group at a hurried rate. She didn't even stop when she noticed Jason, it's clear she noticed him by her slightly shocked expression, but clearly whatever she found was more important. "I lost Sicily." She breathed out in a mildly panicked voice.

"How did you lose your sister? Where's Alice?" Ben softened his tone when he addressed Kyo. He still sounded a little on the peeved side though. Amadeus tensed next to Jason but didn't dare open his mouth.

"She took off running! I went after her as fast as I could but… she just wouldn't stop. I was afraid I was gonna get lost if I kept ongoing. Alice was right behind her though..." Kyo shook her head and then turned to Amadeus and Jason. She had a rather concerned look on her face once she made eye contact with Jason.

"Just keep calm and go back to Sorrel, okay? I'll be there in a moment." Kyo nodded at Ben's instructions. She gave Jason a bit of a nasty look before taking off.

Jason started writing right away. "Who's Sorrel? Lover?"

"Oh god no!" Ben's rather cold demeanor changed in an instant. He then shook his head pretty quickly to correct himself. "No. No." Ben finally just sucked in a deep breath. "She's just a friend."

Jason wrote that down. "I want to ask her some questions when I'm done with you."

Ben seemed ready to dismiss him, but then he just bit his tongue and crossed his arms. "Fine. I see there's no reasoning with you."

The questions were basic in all honesty. "Where were you on the night of the first attack?"

"Home. Norway."

"Anyone that can verify that?"

"My dad, sister, mom, if you don't believe in the immediate family then I know a Professor Spotswode."

"So let me get this straight. You're born German, sound British, and live in Norway?"

"_Da._"

"Weird one you are."

"Says the one who's obsessed with me." Ben chuckled softly. "Look, I got things to do… Can we hurry this along."

So, they did. He went through a few more basic questions which Ben answered effortlessly. That was until he got to the very last question: "Where were you during the second attack?"

"... I was with my friends in the upper parts of Kansas."

"Where are your friends?"

Ben pursed his lips for a moment thinking about what to say next. After a moment he just crossed his arms and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I know Sorrel is going to hate this… but to prove our innocence… follow me."

It pained Ben to do this, but because of Amadeus's mistake, he had no choice. So, they walked. They crossed the small river, it wasn't that deep, and up the other side of the gorge. Amadeus suddenly sped up his walking so he was next to Ben. "Look-"

"-Don't! Just… Don't." Ben partially growled before speeding up just a little bit more to get away from Amadeus. Amadeus just slunk back with his arms crossed.

"You gave me a chance." The robot (until Jason was told differently that thing was a robot) explained to Ben.

"There's a difference. You didn't imply I'm a terrorist or Pedophile." Ben, kind of quietly, told the robot.

There was some silence after that. The only sound being their shoes against the rocks as they continued to climb up the gorge. Jason didn't like that he had to walk to these people, the fact that they weren't there where Ben was put him on edge. So, he kept one hand on his pistol just in case it was needed.

* * *

"Okay… okay." Ben crossed one leg over the other as he interrupted Jason. "So, you held Amadeus at gunpoint, and then thought you might be walking into an ambush."

"Yeah."

"For an FBI agent, you're not smart."

"I just wanted to catch you in the act… I didn't think it'd be as crazy as it turned out to be." There was a moment of silence between the three of them. Ben tried to rack his brain for what happened next but he really couldn't remember much… Well, he remembered something. Something that happened just before Amadeus and Jason showed up-

"_Sicily! Wait up!" Kyo yelled after her sister who already took up sprinting like her life suddenly depended on it. She was fine just moments ago… Ben rushed next to Kyo, but neither of them could compare to Sicily's sudden Sonic like speed. They had just landed no more than five minutes ago. Alice and Kyo shared a scared look before they both looked at Ben._

"_Is she okay?" Firedrake questioned suddenly. _

"_I don't know…" Kyo frowned at Ben._

_He just nodded at her. "Both of you go after her, make sure she doesn't get lost or hurt."_

"Ben?"

"Something was wrong with Sicily from the start… What happened next? I need to know."

Jason frowned.

* * *

"_I'll skip over my mild freak out and just get to the nitty-gritty…" _

"I told you! 'Big issue,'" Amadeus gestured towards the dragon. Jason had his hand over his heart while he stared at the monster. This thing was _huge!_ Probably about six stories high! The dragon tilted his head at Jason in curiosity. "If I would have told you, you wouldn't have believed me."

"You're right… I wouldn't have."

Ben let out a slow chuckle before quietly patting Firedrake's side. "What's wrong, Agent Jason? Not what you were expecting?" Ben just couldn't help but just slightly mock Jason. He's been hanging around Sorrel for way too long.

"I see…" Jason straightened himself up slightly. His teeth gritted as reached back to feel for his pistol. "I see why Amadeus would question you now… there's no denying it, you had something to do with both attacks! I mean… it's almost perfect a dragon attack who would have ever thought!"

"My fire heals," Firedrake told Jason softly. He leaned down so they were face to face. "Also, I would never harm humans."

Jason took a startled step back before suddenly becoming slightly indignant. "Prove it." He demanded almost childishly to Firedrake. There was a moment of silence as everyone just sort of looked at each other for only a few short seconds before Sorrel was the one to speak:

"None of us are hurt."

Jason didn't even give it a second thought. He pulled out his knife. "Whoa!" Nearly everyone suddenly shouted. They clearly thought he was about to stab one of them. Ben quickly pushed Kyo and Sorrel behind him to shield them if that were the case. Amadeus took a few steps back away from Jason, and Firedrake quickly got on the defensive and even though he stated that his fire heals he was clearly growling showing signs of quickly becoming aggressive.

"Oh, calm down you lot!" Jason snarled before suddenly slicing his arm. It was a quick slice, that clearly hurt as a loud hiss suddenly left his mouth. The slice wasn't deep, but just enough to draw a bit of blood. He then brought it forward towards Firedrake. "Can you heal this?"

Firedrake perked up suddenly and just nodded. With a simple deep breath in, he blew fire on Jason's arm. Out of everything; Jason was not expecting the fire to be blue. It didn't hurt. It felt pleasantly warm. When Firedrake was done moments later the cut he had made was completely gone. "Shit, you aren't joking…" Jason breathed out as he traced over where the cut should be. Nothing, the skin was completely healed.

"So, you as you can see, Agent O'Neil. It couldn't have been us."

"... Then what was it?"

Ben opened his mouth to reply with what he knew; before he could that Sorrel suddenly came up- no- she flat out bolted on all fours to Firedrake- bumping into Ben in the process. Ben looked confused at that. "Sorrel-?!"

That's when the chaos happened. Someone, Jason had no clue who came _screaming_ out of the ever-growing darkness. This had startled everyone. All of their reactions were delayed as this person- a rather tubby forty-something male- went rushing at Ben. Ben, having no time to defend himself, got tackled to the ground.

Kyoto, who was standing next to Ben, had her hands up and stumbled back, slipping on a rock and falling back on her butt.

"Get off!" Ben's voice stretched a little as he tried to fight the man. His little robot friend had fallen off his shoulder in this process. It ended when Ben, seeing no other option, threw his arm back and punched this man square in the face. Then, just for good measure, when Ben got back to his feet he threw another well-placed punch to the man knocking him out. It was like watching a sack of potatoes fall to the ground as the man went down.

"Nice punch." Amadeus whistled. The man now unconscious, just laid there not even twitching. Ben let out a sudden hiss and Jason saw him shake his hand in pain.

"Been a while since I had to punch someone… Are you okay?" Ben leaned down and offered his palm to the robot.

"Am I okay?! Are you okay!?" He jumped on to Ben's palm. "He just seemed to come out of nowhere…"

"What's wrong with 'em?" Amadeus walked over and gave the guy a little nudge with his foot. "Why is he… like that?" Amadeus sneered.

Everyone, minus Kyo, who was still sitting on the floor, got in closer to look at the man. He was gray. Not like his skin was dead in color, but he was grayscale gray. His skin an unnatural darker shade whereas his hair, nails, and clothes were a lighter shade. "I've…" Ben got down on one knee to look at the man. "I've never seen anything like this before…" Ben then reached forward and pulled the man's eyelid back to get a look at his pupils. "He's not even a vampire. His eyes are gray."

"We need to leave!" Sorrel yelled in madly, but it fell on deaf ears. Even Firedrake seemed interested in this person.

"Guys-" Kyo breathed out, but she was cut off suddenly by Jason.

"-What could this possibly be? Like you're the paranormal expert here." Jason asked Ben.

"Guys-"

"-If I had to guess… some sort of possession? But…" Ben shook his head.

"Gu-"

"Possession? Most likely not!" The robot scoffed. "No, this is something else-"

"_Guys!_" Kyo completely screamed in so loud that her voice almost broke. That did it, everyone looked at her, she was standing now, but she looked too scared to come any closer. It was at that moment that Jason noticed her body language. She looked afraid. Her skin had turned pale, her breath ragged, and her fingers were trembling as she pointed at the man. "Th-that's Pastor Larry!" She finally cried out. Ben and Amadeus had a knowing look on their face, but Jason was seemingly out of the loop for this one. They then looked down at this 'Pastor Larry' together.

"He sure as hell didn't look dead a moment ago." Amadeus huffed.

"Dead?" Jason inquired.

"He's from the village that was burnt down… he musta survived-"

"We have to go! Go! _GO!" _Sorrel's voice caused everyone to turn and look at her now. She was constantly trying to get Firedrake to go.

Firedrake glanced up at her. "-Please Sorrel, what's the matter, I've never seen you act like this-"

Jason zoned out for a moment. He didn't know why he suddenly left the conversation, but something was wrong and his mind was telling him this. What was wrong? What was off? His mind was buzzing. Everything seemed to be buzzing. '_Something's wrong. Something's wrong.'_ his mind told him with every passing second. '_Something's __**wrong**_.'

"Jason?" Ben's voice had brought him back suddenly. Ben had this rather worried look spread across his face as he faced Jason. Jason blinked a little in confusion. "You want to put that away, mate? You aren't helping." Ben's eyes quickly shifted and Jason followed his gaze.

Jason had his gun out. He didn't even remember pulling it out, but there it was. Granted he had it pointed up towards the sky and not at anyone in particular… It was at that moment he realized something. It was dark. Unnaturally so, it wasn't like normal night time where one could see the moon or stars, no, this was… wrong. It was just wrong.

Then Larry woke up. It was… odd. He opened his grayed out eyes and very jankly got up, and it didn't look natural in the slightest. His whole body seemed to twitch and contort with every movement he made to get up to his feet. At the last bit he stood up straight with his elbows bent, arms up, and palms facing the sky. It looked insane. He then smiled, which sent a shiver down Jason's spine. The smile was not natural none of this was natural.

This seemed to creep Ben out as well as he quickly took a few steps back. "What's wrong with him?" Ben managed to sputter out.

"**You don't need to worry about Sicily or Alice anymore." **

The air turned stiff in an instance. Ben has never heard Pastor Larry speak, but he knew that was not his voice. His voice was there, deep and slightly southern, but another voice overlayed his. This one was a female speaking.

"What did you just say?" Kyo snarled in response as she took a few brazen steps towards Larry. Larry didn't even look at her. He kept his gaze behind her. He still had that unnerving smile plastered on his face.

"**You need not worry about Sicily."**

"Where are they!?" Jason's FBI instincts kicked in and he pointed his gun at Larry's head. "What did you do to her!?"

"Jason! Put it away, there's no need for that." Ben scolded him, but he was outnumbered in the gun department, because it seemed Amadeus (at some point) had rushed back to his truck, well he was back now with daddy's shotgun.

"Where's my sister?!" barked Amadeus as he pointed the gun at Larry. "I know about you, man, I've heard the stories!" Amadeus pumped the shotgun once, and that's when Ben came in, forcing the barrel down.

"We don't need to use that! That's _not_ Pastor Larry!" Ben tried to reason with Amadeus.

"Ben?" Sorrel's oddly quiet voice was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. Before Ben could look back at her and Firedrake something else happened. The sky was starting to darken, the moon wasn't visible anymore and it was becoming almost impossible to see each other.

"**She protects us."**

It wasn't just Larry talking either, more voices were coming towards them. Jason started looking around them and could see that they were surrounded by people. These people he didn't recognize at first. That was until he realized that they were all from that odd village that Larry was from as well, and like Larry, they were all grayscale, certain things a lighter shade than others, but they were grayscale nonetheless.

"Shit-" Amadeus turned and swung around with his gun pointed at the read- but he stopped and slowly lowered the barrel. "Alice?" He whispered.

In front of him stood Alice Mcathy. She, like the others, was grayed out, and like the others, she stood there, her arms up, with palms pointed up towards the sky with that same damn smile plastered on her face.

"**She sees that we're all hurting-"**

Then it was time for Jason's shock when he saw a few of his men scattered throughout the crowd. One of them front and center being Lelia herself and like Amadeus, his gun lowered in shock.

"**-We're a family to her-"**

Everyone was in their panic, Kyo taking this all the hardest as she collapsed to her knees and covered her eyes. "What's happening?!" She started sobbing.

"What...?" Amadeus turned to Ben for answers, but it seemed for once Ben didn't have any sort of answer as he just stood there shaking with his fear. Even the dragon and brownie seemed to be in their state of stunned silence. "Don't shut down on me!" Amadeus all but wailed as he grabbed Ben by his shirt collar and started to violently shake him. "My sister is one of those things! Get your head on right dammit."

"**-Don't you want to join us?"**

It was Alice who took the step forward as she reached a hand out for Amadeus to take. Amadeus stopped his shaking and looked at Alice for a moment before denying her hand with a simple slap. "Screw you, give me my sister!" Amadeus snapped.

Alice's smile faded- as did all of their smiles. Every single one of them had a frown on their face that would soon be replaced with an angry scowl. Every. Single. One of them. "**I see…" **their arms all lowered to their sides.

"Get on my back…" Firedrake suddenly whispered to their group. "Now."

"**You're not going anywhere!" **The ground shook violently as another dragon suddenly approached them. This one stood contrasted against Firedrake's silver color as this dragon was jet black. The two stood head to head the same size.

"Sicily!" Kyo cried out.

Sicily it was, on top of the dragon's head. like the others, she was grayed out, but she was different than the others. Her hair wasn't gray, but it wasn't brown, it was white, a pure white that stood out amongst the blackness that was currently swallowing them. Then, she was gone. Jason looked around frantically to where she went.

"**I never said you could touch me!"** Sicily showed up right beside Amadeus, scaring not only him but Ben as well. Both of them fell back, Amadeus fell on his back dropping his shotgun in the process. It was Sicily that was yelling, but that wasn't her voice. Unlike the others that had some sort of overlay, this was a different voice.

Now that Sicily was closer Jason could see her better. Her skin was a darker gray than the others, her hair white, as mentioned, and the tips of her fingers were almost black like she had gotten frostbite or something of the sort. "What did you do to my sister!" Kyo came up to Sicily capturing her attention, allowing Amadeus to scramble away. Sicily looked at Kyo a little startled for a moment, before a grin split across her face. Everyone around them followed this reaction. Before she suddenly vanished for just a moment only repair behind Kyo in an instant causing her to shout out and fall back, just like Amadeus had. Sicily had such a freighting aura around her than honestly, nobody knew how to react just being her presence.

Sicily then just kept that unsettling grin about her before she brought her hand up to her mouth and started to… laugh. When she laughed; so did the others. They had the same hand up their mouth as they did so mimicking her every movement and tone. "**We know your little secret…"** they all seemed to mock Kyo. Then, she laughed louder, and so did the others. "**Oh, what a dirty little secret!" **She suddenly threw her head back and laughed even louder and more obnoxiously. Jason didn't know this 'dirty little secret.' of Kyo's but judging by Kyo's head suddenly hanging he could guess it wasn't good.

Jason wanted nothing more than to point his gun at her, but something else caught his eye. Ben did. Ben seemed to be edging around Sicily, eyeing her up and down taking her 'new form' all in. Jason watched as Ben went for his bag. He opened it and pulled out something. Something that Jason just couldn't make out. Jason looked at Firedrake and Sorrel, Firedrake was currently watching the other darker dragon waiting for them to make a move.

The laughter died down slowly and Sicily stood up a bit stiffer. Ben paused suddenly, clearly afraid that he was caught, but then Sicily simply walked over to Kyo. "**That was mean, a family shouldn't say things like that."** She reached her hand out for Kyo to take.

"You're not my sister!" Kyo jumped up to her feet quickly and backed away from Sicily. "My sister would never talk to me like that, she'd never laugh at me!"

"Ohanzee." Ben finally spoke up. The air turned dry and stiff. It was suddenly so quiet that Jason was sure he could hear a pin drop. "That's your name. Right?"

Jason wasn't sure about all of this, because he knew he wasn't looking at Sicily, there was a difference that anyone could see. So, Ohanzee it was and Ohanzee was not happy. The darkness became more prominent and it was becoming heavy and uneasy.

"**..."** Ohanzee's head turned, her eyes suddenly a deep yellow color that stood out greatly against the darkness that was surrounding all of them. She looked crazed as she stared at Ben just out of the corner of her wide eye. Oddly enough, the others did not mimic her. "**You."** She turned her body around so she could look at Ben more fully. "**You are a bad man-"**

"-what did-"

Before he could finish his sentence tentacles suddenly shoot out from nowhere amongst the darkness and suddenly threw Ben back at least a good ten feet. What Ben was holding clattered against the ground and Jason finally got to see what Ben had. Some sort of handheld gun. Amongst the darkness, it was hard to make it out, but it didn't look like any gun he had seen before.

"Let him go!" Firedrake roared suddenly, no longer watching the dragon in front of him. No, Firedrake tried rushing towards Sicily but with a simple wave of her hand the black dragon was in front of him, halting him dead in his tracks. "Get out of my way!" He demanded to the other dragon.

Ohanzee wasn't listening to Firedrake, instead, with a clawed hand, she raised her arm and Ben, was lifted off of the ground by his neck. "**Did you even care about who I once was?" **Ohanzee questioned.

Ben tried to answer, but all that came out of his mouth was strangled gasps. He kicked and tried to get the tentacles off of him, but all that happened as his hands went right through them.

"Leave him alone!" Kyo went to rush as her, just like Firedrake, but then Ohanzee turned and swung her hand at Kyo and suddenly everything went from crazy to Bat-shit insane. A ball of light came out of her hand and struck Kyo dead in the chest.

Kyo let out a sudden scream of shock. Then the gray came, it started where the ball had hit her and started to the web itself through her whole body. Kyo couldn't do anything about it as it climbed up and up until she, like the others, was completely grayscale. She then fell face-down to the ground. Amadeus was the first one to run straight to her.

"Kyo! Are you okay-" He touched her shoulder. Her head slowly turned upwards towards him, her eyes wide and unblinking as that same smile that the rest of them had was printed on to her face.

"**I feel so much better now, thank you."** Kyo, as well as everyone else, said all at once. She then got to her feet in that same janky uneven movement as earlier before standing tall and straight.

"Holy-" Amadeus took a step back.

"I said let him _go!"_ Firedrake's unfiltered roar cut through the air as he addressed Ohanzee directly. Ohanzee narrowed her eyes as she focused on Firedrake for a moment and with a smile. She did as he had asked and just tossed Ben into the nearest rock causing him to hit his head and fall face down to the ground.

Firedrake let out an infuriated roar and in his anger tried to storm up to Ohanzee.

"**Hm." **Ohanzee hummed weakly as she looked at Firedrake. She put her hand on her chin and the others, Kyo now included, followed her every movement. Jason could see the wheels in her head-turning. "**Is it possible?"** She thought out loud as she looked at the palm of her right hand.

"-No!" Jason realized what she was going to do, but it was too late. She let go of Ben and he fell to the ground with a low groan and with both of her hands she swung like before, but this time more powerful. An actual wave of light went and hit Firedrake's side.

Firedrake let out a sudden roar and suddenly shook Sorrel off of his back. He got down low and started roaring out. Like Kyo, the gray started to the web it's way up to his body, taking the shine away from his scales. He tried to heal himself and blow fire on himself, but as the fire started the normal blue it started to turn deep orange. Firedrake turned his head and breathed fire against the earth and the earth was scorched. His fire no longer healed.

"That's enough!" Jason didn't want to do it, but he no longer had a choice. He raised his gun to Ohanzee's head and fired twice. Ohanzee was gone before the first bullet left the barrel.

"**That's cheating,"** A tentacle came out and snatched his gun out of his hands before tossing it somewhere. "**I don't like cheaters!"** Suddenly all he saw was yellow as Ohanzee was right in his face. Now, Sicily is shorter than him, by about a foot, but Ohanzee was face to face with him. She stared at him for several seconds before lowering herself to the ground. "**I see… you just want to save everyone- but tell me, can you? Look at them, all of them…"**

Jason did as she asked and looked at the chaos around him. Amadeus was by Ben, who hasn't gotten up, Firedrake was now completely blacked out like the dragon in front of him and both of them were staring down at Jason, smoke rising from their nostrils as they seemed ready to just turn him into charcoal, and of course, there was everyone else. "**You can't fight this… just join me. Join my family." **

Jason looked at Ohanzee's extended hand. "**I'll protect you like I protected all of them…"** she coerced him. The more she spoke the more… pretty her voice was becoming. She sounded sweet and almost motherly. "**You need me, Jason." **She finally whispered to him. He looked at her hand and realized that it sounded very tempting, and she seemed like she was doing a pretty bang-up job at doing as such. She loved them all, didn't she? Jason reached out for her hand ready to take it and become a part of her family-

There was a sudden flash of light. Someone had taken a photo. The light was so bright that it caused Jason to squeeze his eyes shut.

The light was what they needed. All Jason could hear was screaming. Screaming from Ohanzee that only faded away as the seconds passed. When Jason reopened his eyes the screaming was gone. That wasn't the only thing gone. Everyone was, Ohanzee, her mindslaves, and the dragons. Jason stood there for a few moments as a few deep breaths left his mouth. He looked over at Amadeus and Ben. Amadeus was currently hovering over Ben looking down at his phone.

Jason's head started to clear and he realized how close he had become to be one of Ohanzee's and that scared him. "Bro! Wake up!" Amadeus's voice cut and echoed through the gorge, something Jason never realized was missing until now. An echo. Jason looked at the sky and saw stars, the moon, and planes. He felt freed and that alone made him laugh.

"Stop laughing!" Amadeus cried at Jason. "This is serious, he's not responding, and we lost the dragon, and the twins!" Jason could see tears in Amadeus's eyes. Jason slowly walked over to Ben and saw that he must have really taken a blow it wasn't just him, but the little robot as well was unconscious. Quietly Jason crouched down and touched Ben's wrist waiting for a pulse.

"He's alive… I'll call for an ambulance bus-" All Jason heard was the cocking of a shotgun right behind him. Both Amadeus and him turned to see a completely grayed Kyo right behind them shotgun pointed.

"Whoa, little missy…" Amadeus put his hands up before he slowly stood.

"**You've hurt me. All I wanted was new family members and this is how you repay me? I won't be hurt any longer… goodbye-"**

Then there was a noise, a flash of silver, and Kyo was tossed in the air. Like not even gently tossed, no, she was just completely thrown a good twenty feet up by a dragon who was now whooping and cheering. "I missed you so much!" The dragon, who was smaller than Firedrake, cheered suddenly. This dragon was accompanied by another silver dragon, and wouldn't you know it? Another brownie.

"Junior…" The other dragon, one that Jason had realized was female, spoke in a slow and cautious tone. She not only noticed Ben, but noticed how gray this human was. This 'Junior' never noticed at first as he had caught Kyo in the air and actually started bouncing her up and down on his back causing several disconcerted 'wah-oh-ah!' to leave Kyo's mouth.

"Did you miss me! I was so worried! Where's Sicily!-"

* * *

"Junior!" Ben cried out loudly as he jumped up from the cot. "It was Junior! Where is he!? Is he okay?!"

"Calm down." Jase stood up and placed a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Do you want to see him?"

"Yes!" Ben all but cried in desperation. "Please…" He finally whimpered. "Does he know? About Firedrake, I mean?"

"Yes." Jase nodded in response. "Just...C'mon… there's still some of the story you're missing. We'll fill you in on the way in."


End file.
